INTERNAL DEPOSITION oF RABDIONTCLIBES
@rtenetinn weve mare active thea the alveolar
1 enene.
The impartaare of ingration as 5 continsing
snaee af contaminetion is evidenced by the
bewed af imomeme! montesiisiatteas 008 flee eae irom
Reageinp. Thear animals had sboat ten times
the leely herden of the haman population in
the ~me lorality. As the air-berne artivity
te imerenss the rate of thetr earretion has pre
viowsly bron denentesereted 115-13). ft r mennt
effertive wath the rase -urth group, but hes
an effect on strontram (33). Three ausies have
shown thet ment of the heslgnrally hassrdews
material remeinimg in the badly ww firmiv fae
m hone within a shert time, =n thet e@fertive
syermic dercwtamination by chenural agents
of evacuation of the humans, the contamination
can ercur only in s shart period follewing exposure. Nevertheless, an attempt to effect in-
island necewarily derived from ingestion of
detonation, since it would mobilize snd make
Radioanalysis of water and soil samples from
ren:..... .sat the procedure would have limited
valwe at this time.
A representative group of seven individual
from Rongelap were selected for this study.
During a control period of 5 days, 44 hour urine
samples were collected daily for radinanalysm
in order to establish a ban! excretion rate.
During the next 3 days, calcium EDPA was administered orally, | gm per 25 Ibs of body
weight daily instead of the preferable intravenous dnp because parenteral therapy was net
had already dropped to a low value at the time
of the pigs during their prolonged stay on the
radioactive food and water.
Rongelap indicated high levels of contamination from the fallout at early times following
detonation.
It appears that during the first month a
limited amount of fission products was avail-
able to plants growing on the contaminated
anil. Significant amounts of beta activity as
well as small amounts of alpha activity were
present on the external surface of plants at 42
days poet detonation. Only very small amounts
of beta activity and no alpha activity were detected in the edible portions of fruits such as
ae.
73
pandanus, papavas and coconuts.
However,
ternal decontamination was made 7 weeks pret
detection of isntopes easier, even though i was
practical under the cirvumetances.
Twenty. four hour urine samples were col.
lected daily during the treatment peried and
high levels of activity were foundin the coconut
tree sap, and the sotopic concentration was
very simiiar to that of water.
High levels of activity were found in fish
for odlays following treatment to determine the
effectiveness of EDTA in accelerating the excretion rate of the radioelements.
No side effects from the we of ELTA were
the ingestion of contaminated water and fixh
were the principal sources of internal contamination of human beings, Of the individual
radionuclides, Sc*, because of its high solubility and relatively long radioactive half-life
was prolably the isotope of greatest potential
hazard in the environment.
mained unchanged throaghout the treatment.
The mean activity of the urine during the
taken from Rongelap lagoon.
It appears that
Internal Radioactive Decontumination Therapy. Since there is no method of counteract
ing the effects of radiation from internally deposited emitters, treatment: consists of remov-
Ing the nuclides from the body as rapidly as
pomble.
The
ability.
of
ethylene-diamine-
tetra-acetic acid (EDTA) to mobilize certain
of the fission products from the skeleton and
obeerved.
Blond counts and blood pressure re-
EDTA treatment pemod was 2.5 times the pre-
treatment setivity. The probability that the
differences observed are due to chance is jew
than 8.01,
Thus the oral administration of
BTA fora period of 3 day» beginning 52 days
post detonation increased the excretion rate of
internally deposited fission products, but. the
over-all effect on decreasing the buy burden
was slight, a> the excretion rates were very low
at this time.
Summary.
The first instance of internal de-
Dosition of mixed feion products in: hunwsns
occurred as a result of failout fellowing a ther-