SESSION fl 145 TAYLOR: Assuming itis very hard to cet this stuff off, the ques- tion is how important, really, in a major disaster situation would it be to get the stuff off? 1! get the impreasion it wouldn't be terribly important—that people would get beta burns but that these really are not terribly serious anyway. CONARD: ate the skin. Theycan be serious, but it's fairly casy to decontamin- Even with a damp cloth you can probably wipe enough fallout material off so that yau won't get a burn. BUSTAD: I wouldn't sell beta burns short. They are very irritating, at least that's what my pigs told me! Furthermcre, there is a long latency for the development of skin cancers. I would also point out, although it may not be very significant, that ioditie may be readily absorbed through damp skin. “(The radioiodine in case of fallout originates frorn tellurium in the fallout.) I would recali for you that we can obtain cur requirements for iodine if we just ruo tincture of iodine on our skin, We'll get enough that way to satisfy our demands. FREMONT-SMITH: there? . You mean all over or just a little bit here and BUSTAD: No, you don't have to rub it all over. WARREN: Well, in the mass casualty situation you wouldn't want to have to supply all of the materiala, ointments, and bandages to protect the skin while tt was breaking down, and if you could eliminate this from the consideration, it would be worth doing. TAYLOR: It sounds like a difficult job. _ CONARD: To get it completely decontaminated. It was very dif- ficult in the Marshallese but I'm sure they would never have developed any further skin burns if we had gotten it off completely. FNEMONT-SMITH: Baths may not be available in a disaster area for everybody, There may not be that much uncontaminated water to use. WARREN: Some did go into the ocean and were less contaminated. FREMONT-SMITH: But we're nct all staying close to the ocean.