ee - dei rie cee mea 58 the blood volumesandthered cell volumesof the Caucasiansliving in the Islands and the Caucasians of the Siri and Moore groups; furthermore, dura- tion of residency in the Islands has no significant effect. Earlier data had suggested that Caucasians living in the Marshall Islands might have reduced blood volumes and red blood cell volumes. Though this may be true for certain individuals, it does riot seem to hold true for the group as a whole. Test for Australia Antigen The Australia antigen, a serum protein first detected in the serum of the Australian aborigines, was searched for in the Rongelap population. * Details of these studies are presented in Appendix 16. Samplesof sera from 250 Rongelap people were examined between 1958 and 1965. Of these, 237 were consistently negative, 11 were consistently positive (4.4%), and 2 were inconsistent. Family studies indicated that positive subjects were homozygous for the genes. This antigen has been found to be relatively common in some formsof leukemia. *These studies were carried out by Dr. B.S. Blumberg,Insti- tute for Cancer Research, Philadelphia, Pa. Since the Rongelap people will be medically examined for many years, it will be interesting to see whetherthe presence of this antigen is related substantially to disease, particularly leukemia. ESTIMATION OF INTERNAL BODY BURDENS OF RADIONUCLIDES In the 1965 survey, the body burdensof radionuclides were determined by use of a portable shadow-shield type of whole-body counter and by radiochemical analysis of 24-hr urine specimens. Whole-Body Counting The use of the shadow-shield type of whole- body counter represents a departure from previous surveys, in which a 21-ton steel room had been transported to Rongelap andusedfor this purpose. Correlations between the two techniques wereestablished by standardizations using the permanent steel room and a duplicate of the shadowshield at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The body '°K values of the Rongelapese provide another means of correlation. The shadow-shield counter (Figure 68)is very similar to the one. described by Palmer and i q sini { | of REGRESSION LiNES Roesch’® and to the Hanford whole-body counter.’* It was installed on Rongelap in one of the newly acquired air-conditioned trailers. The de- T BV =0.9! +0.090 (Taw) RCV = 0.06 +0.0474 (TBW) BY MOORE { RCV BV | MARSHALLESE { RCV 6 caucasiaNns { BV = 0.158 +0.05296 [TBW) =05337+00767 (TAW) © -01749+ 0.044) (TBW) = 1.2101+0.0792 (TAW) RCV -019947+00419(TBW) IN PACIFIC tector, an 11%4-in.-diameter Nal (T1) crystal 4 in. -=0.647+01'15 (TBW}) W. SIRI, 7 f + s ff Z s —_ ber cushion in the trough between the twowalls of lead bricks, and is movedto a position under the VOLUME, LITERS b ] 7 detector by a motor-driven worm-screwdrive. The 3 7 > — | Ibe | ' 5 thick (Harshaw), is housed in a lead shielding supported by a steel plate about 14 in. above the bed. The subject to be counted lies on a foam rub- W. SIRI oe 7-7" eee Part wee MARSHALLESE —-— CAUCASIANS EMOORE L id 20 | 30 L 40 TOTAL BODY WATER, LITERS Figure 67. 2008342 “| IN PACIFIC 50 60 system was Calibrated with a plastic phantom man, both in a stationary position beneath the counter and with movement equivalent to the length of the body during the count. The signal from the detector was picked up by 7 photomultiplier tubes mounted on the crystal, and the gamma-ray spectrum was analyzed with a 400-channel pulse-height analyzer (RIDL). The gammia-ray spectral data were read outonrolls of adding-machine paper for immediate evaluation, and on punched paper tape for subsequent data processing which involved transfer of the data from the punched paper tape to magnetic tape and subsequent analysis in termsof radioisotopes by a spectral stripping program on an IBM-7094 ney OT