INTERNAL DEPOSITION OF RADIONUCLIDES Fertility of the hens and hatchability of the eggs produced by the mating of contaminated roosters and hens showed noeffect of radiation. The baby chicks hatched from these eggs are growing normally, and the amount of radioactivity in their tissues is barely detectable. While the administration of the combination of zirconium citrate and sodium EDTA to chickens doubled the excretion rate of fission products, the rate at this long time after exposure was so low that the body burden was little affected. In the 6 month period post detonation neither significant gross changes nor pathological changes which could be definitely ascribed to radiation were detected in any of the animals. Gross beta activity of urine and tissue samples indicated that all the animals had significant internal contamination. The level of internally deposited radioisotopes in the pigs from Rongelap was ten times the amount in human beings from this area. The difference in the amount of internal contaminationof the animals and the hunian beings was the result of the prolonged stay of the animals in the contaminated area. The chickens were found to have the same concentration of radioisotopic material per unit of body weight as the pigs. All of the animals remaining will be observed throughout their lifetime for the possible appearance of any long term biological effects resulting from their exposure to external and internal radiation. Biblography 1. Hamilton, J. G.: The metabolic properties of the fission products and Actinide elements, Rev. dled. Physics 20: 718, 1948. ~3 cH “I teasme cS Cry 381712 O—56——8 91 2. Abrams, R., et al.; Metabolism of inhaled fission product aerosols, PPR, 22G, 5.16 (CH-3485: MDDc-248). U. S. Atomic Energy Commission. 3. Bloom, W.: Histopathology of irradiation from external and internal sources, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1948. 4. Kikuchi, T. et al.: The radioactive dust from the nuclear detonation. Bulletin of the Institute for Chemical Research. Supplementary Issue Kyoto, November 1954. 3. National Bureau of Standards Handbook 52 (Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C.), 1953. 6. Cowan, F. P., Farabee, L. B., and Love, R. A.: Health physics and medical aspects of a strontium” inhalation incident, Am. J. Roent.. Rad. Ther. and Nuc. Med, 67: 805, 1952. 7. Looney, W. B., Hasterlik, W., Brues, A. M., and Skirmont, H. Late effects of the early medical and industrial use of radioactive material. Amer. J. Roentgenol. LXXII, 1006-1037, 1955. 8. Looney, W. B.: Late effects (25-40 years) of the early medical and industrial use of radioactive material. Presented in part at the 35th annual session of American College of Surgeons, Chicago. Ill., April 9, 1954. 9. Hunter, H. F., and Ballou, N. E.: Fission-product decay rates, Nucleonics 9: 1951. 10. Harris, P.: Personal communication, 1954. 11. Foreman, H., and Hamilton, J. G.: The use of chelating agents for accelerating excretion of radioelements AECD-4357, 1951. 12. Cohn, S. H., Gong, J. K., and Fishler, M. C.: Studies on EDTA treatment of internal radioactive contamination, Nucleonics 11: 56, 1953. 13. Cohn, S. H., and Gong, J. K.: Effect of chemical agents on skeletal content and excretion of injected strontium™, Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol. and Med. 83: 550, 1953. 14. Norris, W. P., Woodruff, L. A., Gustafson, P. F., and Brues, A. M.: Report on biological specimens coliected in the Marshall Islands in the spring of 1954 (To be published as ANL-3828). 15. Schubert, J., and White, M. R.: The effect of different dose levels of zirconium citrate on the excretion and distribution of plutonium and yttrium, J. Biol, Chem. 184: 191, 1950.