About 50 hours after the "shot", the Navy removed the 64 Rongelap
residents from the Atoll to the medical base at Kwajalein (Sharp &
Chapman, 1957; Cronkite et al, 1956)
Also, eighteen visiting
Rongelapese were removed from Sifo Island, Ailingnae Atoll, and 157
Utirik people from Utirik Atoll. It was immediately recognized that the
surveillance and care of these people required far more professional
staff than the base could supply, and a special medical team hurriedly
organized for this purpose in the United States, utilizing naval and AEC
personnel, reached the base 8 days after the detonation.

Consistent with a whole-body dose of 190 rem (over two days),

two-thirds of the Rongelap group experienced nausea, 10% with vomiting

and diarrhea, which cleared within three days or so, and all showed
depressed white-blood-cell counts (Cronkite et al, 1956). As a result of
the skin dose from physical contact with fallout, about 70% developed
skin lesions of widely varying severity after a latency period of two to
three weeks. Most of these were to heal successfully but a few developed
significant scarring. There were no deaths within 60 days of exposure.
The most “significant” part of the initial exposure produced no

immediate signs or symptoms.

A half-dozen thyroid-seeking radionuclides

entered the body through fallout-contamination of food and water.
the course of the following weeks these iodine and telluriun

Over

radionuclides delivered doses that eventually caused thyroid hypofunction
and the appearance of thyroid tumors.

The Bravo test posed new dosimetry problems, only vaguely sensed
before. Owing to the gigantic energy-yield at ground level, great

quantities of coralloid radioactive material were generated

(Hiroshima

and Nagasaki had involved high air-bursts): 142 radionuclides were
involved whose radiations and rates of decay varied greatly, and whose
eventual effects depended on the weather conditions and the living habits
of the exposed population.
At the time of evacuation, the exposure rate in Rongelap village was

1.2 - 2.3 R/hour. The whole-body dose of “175 R in air" reported in 1956
was approximately correct. The dose estimate for the thyroid gland,
however, was much too low because only iodine-131 had been considered in
the calculation. As a result, the appearance of thyroid disease later on
was quite unexpected.
An upwards revision of thyroid dose was reported in 1964 when
lodine-133 and iodine-135 were included. (James, 1964). The revisions of
1984 (Lessard et al, 1985; Lessard, 1984a), based on a comprehensively

planned attack on the problem (Bond et al,

1978), put the mean adult

whole-body dose at 190 rem. The revised total dose to the thyroid gland,
including contributions from all seven important radionuclides was
greatly increased and varied significantly with age at exposure in 1954
-- from 5,200 rem for a one-year old to 1,600 rem at age 14, and 1,200
rem for the adult male. It was estimated that 95% of the thyroid dose was
received during the first three post-exposure weeks, and 100% within
three months (Note 4).

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