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THYROID LESIONS IN MARSHALLESE EXPOSED TO FALLOUT
(AS OF SEPT. 1972)®
Marshall Island group
(radiation dose-gamma)
}
Rongelap (175 rads
gamma exposure)
Rongelap (on Ailingnae
Island-69 rade gamma
exposure)
Utirik? (14 rads gamma
exposure)
i
Rongelap unexposed
Likiep unexposed
Age at
exposure
< 10
Estimated
thyroid
dose-rads!
500-1400
11-20
> 20
all
335-500
335
-
< 10
200-500
all
-
> 10
< 10
> 10
all
< 10
> 10
all
< 10
> 10
all
1323
40-80
224
-
-
-
-
-
Thyroid
lesions
percent?
89.5 (17/19)
12.5 (1/8)
16.5 (3/26)
39.6 (21/53)
Thyroid
surgery
15
0
2
17
Ma Lignant
lesions
__percent?
5.3 (1/19
7.7 (2/26
5.7 (3/53)
16.6 (1/6)
0
-
14.3 (2/14)
1
-
12.5 (1/8)
l
-
0.0 (0/55)
5.8 (4/69)
0
1
0.0 (0/61)
0
-
0
-
3.2 (4/124)
3.8 (5/133)
2.6 (5/194)
0.0 (0/31)
4.7 (5/106)
3.6 (5/137)
1
1
lL
0
0
1.4 (1/69)
0.8 (1/124
-
loose from 131, 132, 133, 135, plus gamma dose
2 nased on number living.
In parentheses number of cases/total number in group.
Jone child 10-17 years of age at exposure received estimated thyroid doses between
132 and 200 rads.
+Pifteen children 10-17 years of age at exposure in this group received estimated
thyroid doses between 22 and 40 rads.
Sthe more energetic shorter-lived isotopes of iodine contributed less to the total
thyroid dose in the Utirik people due to later fallout. One might surmise therefore
that the biologleal effectivenena af the thyroid dona per rad would ba lesa in that
4 bo
‘ x Hg
t
group.
fra addition to thyroid lesions, one case of acute myelogenous leukemia was discovered
in a 19-year-old Rongelap boy who had received 175 rad gamma radiation at 1 year of ag
235