DASA 2019-2
W2
CONARD: Yes, I think that's been done. That's the reason it was
declared to be highly alkaline. It was incinerated coral, calcium care
bonate, calcium oxide,
EISENBUD: Excuse me. I didn't see how it could have helped, assuming it was calcined initially. It was in intimate contact with water
quite a long while before it actually fell out. It would seem to me if
it was calcined it would be hydroxide. This ia an interesting speculation and it's a really interesting point which I hadn't given much
credence to. I was hopeful that someone had done some work onthis.
{t's too late.
DUNHAM: There are no notes by the medical personnel about skin
lesions and for ten days after we got there we saw none.
EISENBUD: The norma! humidity of the atmosphere in tnat part
of the world | shouid think would result in conversion of the oxide.
Apart from that, this whole fireball sucks up enormous amounts of
water which eventually cool the fireball; and then there are rainfalls.
It just seems incredible to me that calcium oxide could persist for four
hours in that atmosphere, in this case seven hours, but this is just
speculation.
BUSTAD: [think Chuck Durham's point is quite a critical one in
this case, in that a radiation burn will show up after a considerable
period of time during which there may be no manifestation of injury.
" CONARD: Yes. ‘This is characteristic of radiation burns, that
there's usually a lag after the burn before the ‘esion shows up as contrasted with thermal and chemical burns.
WARREN:
or so,
A chemical burn would come within a few hours, 24 hours
BUS” AD: Yes, except with radiation you may have had a transicnt
erythema within a few hours. In comparative studies on small pigs
using beta particles we observed a transient redness which disappeared
within the first 2+ hours.
CONARD:
Yes.
This was true of the Japanese fishermen, too.
BUSTAD: In the light-colored swine, injury would be manifested in
14 to 21 days.