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of 0.2 rep (March to May 1956).

sion March 1956 was an accumulated exposure

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3%
8

During this period the maximum activ-

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day.

The average radiation to all range-fed
:
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garithmic scale as a

The dashed horizontal line, A~B, i
um and other long-lived radioact:

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g

<2

<*
3
g3
.&

cattle
is close to 0.01 repep P per day
.
ad for this entire
.
period, Thus the maximum exposure of bovine
thyroid was (June 6, 1956 to October 11, 1956)

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east

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ose 3 32 5 =

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day
mucigm

6235

267

BBR

aneigtt
aamapte

BT 4em

lehiole
thyroid

OT am

43 emo...

concentration}.

Median lowof thyroid 15 content in range-fed animals

182

-.. . -..

1181 6.409 4.3 —¢m

27 em

Average
tremensela

“ATage
pale

Median JeveLof thyraid 1!) content in feed lot-fed animals
52 2... 2...
289 0,008 43 em
27 gm

"nianificant)

Number

68 initial count .. .
68 recount --.
ait

6.214083 4.3 em
5. 18:40. 76
_
103 Lig taitt

(O81

16 em

Hrerence no

t

half-lives of radioiodine (lapse of at least 28
days). Even though any one of the human
thyroids contained too little 1! to be detected,
it was possible to make a finer estimate of the
TI content in human thyroids, by combining

Samples were counted an average of 3.8 days
after death, therefore if human thyroids had
1.03 counts of 1 per sample the average IM
burden of human thyroids would be 0.0006
millimicrocuries per gram.
Radiciodine levels in human thyroids either
individually or as a group-measure were not
significantly established in the same time
period whencattle [ content in thyroid tissue
ranged up to 2.7 millimicrocuries per gram
thyroid.

time periods: One of low cattle I" content
(January 1956 to March 4, 1956) and the other
of the period (June to October) when range
cattle thyroids were measurable as having 2to3
thousand counts per minute per total countable

thyroid had appreciable [' content comparable
with beef thyroid. It measured 0.025 millimicrocuries per gram, which is about 1/20th
of the bovine I™ concentration, during this
time period. This man, upon investigalion

thyroids and establishes that the average
human thyroid concentration of !is probably

half-lives of I! earlier. Thus the observed
Jevel is entirely within the expected value for

all the human measurements according to 2

gos 2
gs .
&8 ae
es 5
Res 3
= Me
Bs 3 3
s .2
g&s y BSis

counts
somple per

beef or human contained similar levels of

Humanand beef thyroid were measured for
radioactivity both initially and after 4 or more

3s

Nuraber

1 (highest
measured .

Humanthyroids—

natural radioactivity. Additional beef thyroid
radioactivity was identified as ]™ byfollowing
the decay of radioactivity which uniformly
gave an 8-day half-life to the radioactivity
above the natural background.

=

June to October 1956
.
ue
—
Bovine thyroids
*
|
7
7
ge
.
Thyroids -having more than 1 myge/gm:
Acerage
Average
mera

approximately 1.9 7.
Human thyroids at all times of collection
were in the range of 1/1000ththe level of range-

fed beef thyroid I content. During times
when Icontent was not detectable in either
humansor cattle, the thyroid gland tissue from

163

.

Be

An integral dose for the Bikini tests is estimated as including e time from May
5 to October

1956.

s

;

Ef

2%
&e

ities corresponded to 0.010 to 0.028 rep per

s

‘
1

lapse of time between last range feeding and
.
.
Thus, much of the variance in
:
ye
.
range-fed animals may be iodine decay during
.
t
"
the pre-slaughter holding in stockyards. The
cattle thyroid irradiation for the Kussian exploslaughter.

=

S28

remem

BE
38
2
8 3
& 3
ose

ae ss

= 3
g& g
ges
2 &

I

we

'y include the radioactivity of the glass vial
‘ground has been subtracted.

on en rere i

.

UPTAKE OF IODINE-131 IN HUMAN AND BOVINE THYROIDS

THE SHORTER-TERM BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS OF A FALLOUT FIELD

Thus all radioactivity in cattle thyrotds above line

162

sample. By counting the human thyroid
specimens initially and after decay, the following comparison fails to detect Iin human

less than 1/1000th the maximum level observed
in thyroids from range-fed cattle.

It is interesting to note that one human

through the attending physician, was found to
have boen given a tracer dose (2.5 ye I) 67
days preceding death, or approximately 8
this length of decay of I".
Tt is possible that human thyroids do not

Select target paragraph3