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SESSION IV DISCUSSION
iodine, although I realize they are not usually as important to man.
Under certain conditions '*1 may be of health significance. It was very
significant in the thyroid uptake by those men exploring a contaminated
tunnel follewing an underground detonation in 1963. Obtaining better
knowledge of ‘I cannot always be ignored from a health-hazard standpoint.
MARTIN: I agree with that. However, no data were collected to in-
dicate thyroidal uptake of "I or 5I by rabbits in the Sedan falloutfield.
The objective was to study ‘I. Since the half-lives of ‘I (20.8 hr)
and ‘55 (6.7 hr) are much shorter than the half-life of '*'I (8.04 days),
we did not expect to find significant quantities of those isotopes in
samples collected five days or more after the detonation.
FROM THE FLOOR: Dr. Tamplin, what is the number of the UCRL
report you mentioned ?
TAMPLIN: UCRL-7945-T.
BOYETT: Dr. Tamplin, you mentioned that a vital part of the program at LRL concerned the deposition rate of radionuclides on forage
plants and animals, I believe. Are you gathering literature or has some
information been obtained, as a part of this program, on the deposition
of small particles on human skin?
TAMPLIN: We
ever, with respect
entrance of iodine
only kind of data
skin. We have run
haven’t been gathering information on that. Howto iodine, for example, we have worried about the
in humans through the skin. This is probably the
we have looked at that deals with deposition on the
across some reports that deal with the collection of
fallout on the fur of animals, and this, as Dr. Martin mentioned, leads
to a route of entry through preening for jackrabbits. I think we also have
reports about fallout on the fur of some rats that were housed in cages,
but, so far as the deposition of small particles on human skin, we
haven’t considered that.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
LENGEMANN: Dr. Ward, in all our experiments with cesium, we
have noted that when milk cows are given radiocesium daily for a
period of about 30 days, the milk radiocesium approaches 1.5% of the
daily radiocesium intake per liter of milk. In your studies your animals only attained a value of 0.3%of the daily intake per liter of milk.
How do you account for such a discrepancy between laboratory and
field studies ?
WARD:
This is a thing that we have been interested in and have
investigated to some extent. I believe it is related to the cellulose in