Effects of fall-out radiation on Marshallese
275
A preliminary study of the data by plotting the values for each age criteria
against age (at five-year intervals above 20 years) showed no consistent differences
between the exposed and unexposed groups. However, the numbers of people
are not large, and nostatistical treatment of the data has yet been done.
A general idea of the trends of several of these ageing criteria may be obtained
from figure 5. After further testing of the age dependence and variability of
the data, a uniform scoring system will be applied and the criteria weighted to
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Plots of ageing criteria against age at five-year intervals.
obtain a total score on each individual which may approximatetheir ‘ biological
age’ for a comparison with their actual age. Further criteria may be added.
Particularly needed are further tests of functional status or vigour which can
be measured. It is not known if the type of criteria chosen are necessarily
associated with ‘ radiation senescence’, but the approach is believed worth
investigating, since many animal studies indicate late radiation changes that
closely resemble advanced or premature ageing (Blair 1952, Cassarett 1956,
Alexander 1957, Comfort 1959).
2.2.3. Malignancies, leukaemia
One case of ovarian cancer (verified by biopsy at operation) in a 61-year-old
exposed female was noted during the past year, the first case of malignancy
noted in either the exposed or unexposed group. There is no reason to
incriminate radiation in the aetiology of this case, particularly in view of the
early time of appearance.
Since leukaemia is the earliest type of neoplasia associated with radiation
to develop, examinations in the Marshallese have included blood smears, stained
for alkaline phosphatase of neutrophils and basophil counts in 4000 white cells
per individual. No evidence of decreased alkaline phosphatase of neutrophils