FIELD
THE SHORTER-TERM BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS OF A FALLOUT
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cocoanuts. I was thinking that possibly strontium might follow that. Do youhavefigures?
Dr. Waites. Just one sample of breadfruit
was recovered, and it was not sufficiently active
to warrant complete analysis.
Dr.
Cuapwicx. I did sort of a limited
dietary survey on someof the natives out there
and found that breadfruit was one of the
principal articles of their diet, and a very
important one. To reassure Dr. Cohn, about
the clams as nearly as I could understand it,
iho onlv seafood the natives ate to any extent
at all was the fish. They didn’t seem to eat
the clams or crabs or langousta, the type of
lobster they have out there.
Dr. Conarp (BNL). It might be of interest
that last May the one death that we had in
the Rongelap people, a man 45 years old, who
died of hypertensive heart disease, we obtained
an sutopsy
and the bone specimens were
examined at the New York Operations Office.
The levela were very, very low in activity.
There was a slight amount of strontium, at
the samelevel we find in the autopsies on the
American bones.
The urine of the Rongelap people at 2
years postexposure showed very lowlevels of activity. [think cerium, praseodymium about 6
disintegrations in 24 hours, and a slight amount
of strontium 90; and a very small amount of
cesium.
I would also like to add that these people
during the first 2 days lived under extremely
bad environmental contamination. I think it
is Of interest that after 2 years they have such
lowlevels of body burden.
Dr. Linpnene (UCLA). As you gather, we
PUBLIC HEALTH IMPLICATIONS OF SHORT TERM HAZARDS
By J. G. Tern, Jr.
are pretty well convineed that this distance
U.S. Publie [Health Service, Washington, D.C.
factor is pretty real in regard to the distribution of the fission product. One is tempted
to experiment with the fallout patterns with
those in the Pacifie as compared to those in
the continental States. These are much more
extensive. The figures J have secn seem to
suggest that the islands that are being sampled
in the Pacific would correspond to areas very
close to ground zero on the continent.
Do you have any experiences in the Pacific
(hat would let you comment whetherthe stronGumor iodine samples might be much higher
if you could sample effectively 1,000 or 500
miles out.
| don’t care to direct this question
to anyone in particular.
lation.
It is just pure specu-
Dr. Coun. No, we don’t have any specific
information on that. A number of islands
were studied. They varied by distances of
several hundred miles. Again the concentrations were roughly proportional to the dis-
tance and depend on the fallout pattern and so
forth. Does this answer your question?
Dr. Linppere. Yes.
Dr, Terriuu. Mr. Chairman and members of
the symposium, it gives me a great deal of
pleasure to be able to talk to you and to exchange views with you at a meeting of this
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type.
It is a real opportunity for the Public
Health Service and I think we should all thank
you for inviting us to this meeting, and for
giving us an opportunity to learn of your
research and investigations in these various
fields.
Tf we trace back in history a bit, wefind that
this pattern of cooperation between the Public
Health Service and the military departments
and the AKC hasquite a historical background.
Somevery specific things were done during the
Spanish American War, World War I, and
World War II.
The Public Health Service had
a. few officers assigned to the Manhaltan Engi-
neer District. The Department of Defense
has helped in our training activities. Other
more recent examples are our cooperative
projects with the Atomic Energy Commission
in Nevada and with Joint Task Force Seven in
the Pacific.
In addition to these specifics, of course, there
is & constant interchangeof information through
various scientific meetings.
From the public health viewpoint, one of the
principles that we must bear in mind is the
concept of total dose. From our standpointit
really matters little whether the population as
a whole receives their limiting dose in a serics
of acute exposures or in very small amounts on
a more continuous basis. At least that is what
all of the authorities in this field generally seem
to agree upon, even though they might not all
agree on the specific limits.
In arriving at the standards that we talk
aboutin technical mectings, and that are published in the newspapers, we feel that there is a
great Jack of human data, and that all of the
standards leave much to be desired from the
standpoint of explaining differences of opinion
to the public in terms of humandata rather than
animal data, extrapolations and calculations.
This is something that weall have to live with,
but we have to recognize it as u real need. We
hope that with the aid of such groups, as are
represented here, and by other means, to obtain
better information in this arca..
Now, in terms of weapons tests, which are
withus all the time, or moreor less all the time,
as contrasted with actual nuclear warfare, which
we hope will never be with us, there are a scriés
of public health phases that J would like to outline, and explain to you, with reference to the
prevention of radiation exposure.
The first phases are actually in the hands of
the AEC and the Department of Defense. This
is clear to many of you, but all of you may not
realize what an important public health job the
planing groups in AEC and in the Department
of Defense do in this regard.
Oneof the things they do is to select weapons
or devices to minimize fallout. Others are the
selection of the method of detonation, timing,
place, and overall weather conditions in such a
way that thetotal radiation load on the popula-
tion is reduced. Jn these areas thefirst steps of
preventive work rest with people who are
represented al this meeting.
Thenext. phasealso is largely a matter for the
test organizations to carry out. Itis a matter of
operational measurement. Scientifically these
are based on research and special projects that
you carry on at the test sites.
However, they
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