Table
Ratio
of Doses
for
the
[I
Two Modes
of Intake
Inhalation
Lage
Decay
|
1.38
Energy
2.00
Net Factor
Lag
0.68
Fission yie1al®)
}
1.85
Oral Ingestion
:
|
Ts
ere
0.31
0.487
0.148
1.23
1.38
1.23
1.50
2,00
1.50
0.57
1.35
0,27
The dose to the Fayroid in rads from all three isotopes is, hus, 3.4 times
the dose due to
I alone for inhalation and 2.6 times the
I dose for oral
ingestion.
Delay in reaching the thyroid aftes inhalation or ingestion, would |
lower these factors somewhat.
However, the
I daughter of the 78 Ay
Te
t
bas been neglected and would approximately compensate for decay of
I before reaching the thyroid.
I and
We can now proceed to estimate the dose to the thyroids of 3 - 4 year
old girls assuming (1)
L.
Inhalation:
inhalation as the mode of intake and
(2)
oral ingestion.
The ratio of volume of air respired by a 3 - 4 year old girl
to that of an ady 5 can be estimated in two ways:
(3
)
from the maximum rate
of oxyggn intake
and (b)
from the vital capacity
and maximum respiration
rate,
Both methods give a ratio of0.3.
The thyroid burden of these
children would then be 3.4 uc with a range of 1.7 - 6.8 ue.
Assuming the Rongelap children are similar to those of New York (9)
children, the mass of the thyroid of the children is 2.5 + 0.6 grams.
The most probable dose from 13ty is then 150 rad and the dose from all
isotopes is 510 rad.
If we consider the range of thyroid burden. (1.7 - 6.8 uc)
and the variation in thyroid weight
of 200 - 1350 rad.
2.
Oral Ingestion:
(1.9 - 3.1 gms),
the dose is in the range
At the time of the event the Rongelap people were on a
water ration of one pint per day.
They were warned not to drtBy water after
the event but most of them admitted they drank water anyway.
The method
of collecting water by runoff from roofs into cisterns makes it very likely
that this was
the main source of oral ingestion.
There are reports that it
"rained a little" on the afternoon of March 1 (D-Day).
reported that the "water turned yellow."
The village doctor
As far as food is concerned, the
most likely source is dried fish.
Fish were dried on open racks.
However,
in the interviews none of them listed dried fish as having been eaten during
bl