Table I

e
Ratio of Doses for the Two Modes of Intak
Oral Ingestion

Inhalation

133

I

135

/131,

I

/131,

133

I

/131,

135

I

/131,

Decay

0.68

0.31

0,487

0.148

Fission yield”)

1.38

1.23

1.38

1.23

Energy

2,00

1.50

2.00

1.50

1.85

0.57

1,35

0.27

Net Factor

The dose to the thyroid in rads from all three isotopes is,

foys: 3.4 times

I dose for oral
I alone for inhalation and 2.6 times the
the dose due to
Delay in reaching the thyroid altes inhalation or ingestion,yould
ingestion.
Te
I daughter of the 78, B
lower these factors somewhat. However, the

bas been neglected and would approximately compensate for decay of
I before reaching the thyroid.

I and

We can now proceed to estimate the dose to the thyroids of 3 - 4 year
old girls assuming (1)
inhalation as the mode of intake and (2)
oral ingestion.
lL.
Inhalation:
The ratio of volume of air respired by a 3 - 4 year old girl
to that of an ady 5 can be estimated in two ways:
(9a) from the maximum rate

of oxyggn intake
and (b) from the vital capacity
and maximum respiracion
rate,
Both methods give a ratio of 0.3. The thyroid burden of these
children would then be ~3.4 pe with a range of 1.7 - 6.8 uc.
Assuming the Rongelap children are similar to those of New York (9)
children,

the mass of the

thyroid of the children is 2.5 + 0.6 grams.

The most probable dose from 131, is then 150 rad and the dose from all

isotopes is 510 rad,

If we consider the range of thyroid burden (1.7 - 6.8 uc)

and the variation in thyroid weight (1.9 - 3.1 gms), the dose is in the range
of 200 - 1350 rad.
2.
Oral Ingestion:
At the time of the event the Rongelap people were on a
water ration of one pint per day.
They were warned not to ATtBy water after
the event but most of them admitted they drank water anyway.
The method
of collecting water by runoff from roofs into cisterns makes it very likely
that this was the main source of oral ingestion.
There are reports that it
"rained a little" on the afternoon of March 1 (D-Day).
The village doctor

reported that the "water turned yellow."

As far as food is concerned, the

most likely source is driei fish.
Fish were dried on open racks.
However,
in the interviews none of them listed dried fish as having been eaten during

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