38
the blood volumes and the red cell volumesof the
Caucasiansliving in the Islands and the Caucasians
of the Siri and Moore groups; furthermore, dura-
tion of residency in the Islands has nosignificant
effect. Earlier data had suggested that Caucasians
living in the Marshall Islands might have reduced
blood volumesandred blood cell volumes. Though
this may be true for certain individuals, it does
not seem to hold true for the group as a whole.
Test for Australia Antigen
The Australia antigen, a serum protein first
detected in the serum ofthe Australian aborigines,
was searchedfor in the Rongelap popuiation.*
Details of these studies are presented in Appendix
16. Samples of sera from 250 Rongelap people
were examined between 1958 and 1965. Ofthese,
237 were consistently negative, 11 were consistently
positive (4.4%), and 2 were inconsistent. Family
studies indicated that positive subjects were homozygousfor the genes. This antigen has been found
to be relatively commonin someformsofleukemia.
*These studies were carried out by Dr. B.S. Blumberg, Insti-
tute for Cancer Research, Philadelphia, Pa.
Since the Rongelap people will be medically
examined for manyyears,it will be interesting to
see whetherthe presence of this antigen is related
substantially to disease, particularly leukemia.
ESTIMATION OF INTERNAL BODY BURDENS
OF RADIONUCLIDES
In the 1965 survey, the body burdensofradionuclides were determined by use of a portable
shadow-shield type of whole-body counter and by
radiochemicalanalysis of 24-hr urine specimens.
Whole-Body Counting
The use of the shadow-shield type of whole-
body counter represents a departure from previous surveys, in which a 21-ton steel room had been
transported to Rongelap and used for this purpose.
Correlations between the two techniques were established by standardizations using the permanent
steel room anda duplicate of the shadowshield at
Brookhaven National Laboratory. The body ‘°K
values of the Rongelapese provide another means
of correlation.
The shadow-shield counter (Figure 68) is very
similar to the one described by Palmer and
_
Roesch*® and to the Hanford whole-body counter.’® It was installed on Rongelap in one of the
_—
REGRESSION LINES
sini { BV =0.91+0.090 (Taw)
RCV =0.08+00474 (TW)
BY :0647+0115 (TBW)
MOORE { RCV «0.158 +0,.05296 (TBW)
AV :0.5337+00767 (TBW)
MARSHALLESE { RCV = -01749+ 0.044) (TBW)
|
CAUCASHANS
iN PACIFIC
BY = 1.210140 0792 (TBW)
RCV =019947+0 0419 (TBW)
7
,
Z
/
system was Calibrated with a plastic phantom
man, both in a stationary position beneath the
counter and with movement equivalent to the
length of the body during the count.
The signal from the detector was picked up by 7
photomultiplier tubes mounted on thecrystal, and
_
b
VOLUME, LITERS
lead bricks, and is movedto a position underthe
detector by a motor-driven worm-screw drive. The
;
|
1
the gamma-ray spectrum was analyzed with a
400-channel pulse-height analyzer (RIDL). The
gamma-ray spectral data were read outonrolls of
im
[
|
I
o
supported by steel plate about 14 in. above the
bed. The subject to be counted lies on a foam rub-
ber cushion in the trough between the two walls of
|
i
newly acquired air-conditioned trailers. The detector, an 114-in.-diameter Nal (T}) crystal 4 in.
thick (Harshaw), is housed in a lead shielding
* of
eae
Z-"" F MOORE
J
10
20
seeeeee MARSHALLESE
30
—-— CAUCASIANS
IN PACIFIC
{
|
40
50
TOTAL BODY WATER, LITERS
Figure 67.
60
adding-machine paper for immediate evaluation,
and on punched papertapefor subsequent data
processing which involved transfer of the data
from the punched papertape to magnetic tape
and subsequent analysis in termsof radioisotopes
by a spectral stripping program on an IBM-7094