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

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