and required upward estimates of midline depth doses (by about 50%) when compared with the same air doses monitoring bilateral narrow-beam
radiotherapeutic exposures.
8. Possible effects of location, clothing, shielding, bathing in the lagoon, etc., could not be estimated for each individual; this necessitated assignment of a common whole-body radiation dose estimate to each population.
9.

Estimates of internajly deposited radioisotopes were based on assays

of pooled urine specimens obtained two weeks after the accident and on individual 24-hour urine collections obtained between one and seven weexs after exposure.
Radiation doses thus are not direct measurements but are estimates derived from all sources available at the time and subsequently developed (see
Dose Assessment, Appendix II).

Figure 1 presents isopleths of estimated gamma deses three feet in air
(neglecting sea water dilution) integrated over the 96-hour period following
the Bravo detonation.

Despite the relative consistency of dose estimates,

the

actual values derived are subject to some uncertainty, particularly for doses
due to internal deposition, and these uncertainties wust be considered when
evaluating potential biological effects.
For example,

the recent increase in incidence of thyroid neoplasms in

the least exposed population (Utirik) raises additional possibilities of chemical fractionation within the rapidly rising, cooling fireball with resultant
non-uniform deposition of specific radionuclides as "kot spots" within the
fallout pattern, a phenomenon well documented in other nuclear weapon tests

(40).

For report purposes, certain dosimetric values have been assigned to is-

land populations (Table 1), but individual doses within each group are obviously subject to broad variation (see Appendix II and Section IX). This is
especially pertinent in regard to estimated thyroid doses, since these are a
result of a number of imprecisely definable variables. This is exemplified,
for example, by the appearance of growth retardation secondary to severe
hypothyroidism in some children belonging to a group presumed to have thrroid
doses approximating 1150 rads, well below the known level for thyrcid
ablation.
Table 1.

Estimated radiation doses in exposed rfopulations.

Estimated thyroid dose (rem)
Atoll
Rongelap
Ailingnae
Utirik

Number
Estimated whole-body
affected*_.. gamma dose (rem)
67
19
163

_

175
69
14

-

by age at exposure

<10 yr

10-18 yr

> 18 yr

810-1800
275-450
60-95

334-810
190
30-60

335
135
30

*Includes in utero exposures (3 on Rongelap, 1 on Ailingnae, and 6 on Utirik>.

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