{
to the exponent found in the hufftalr ridin’ dita Uf Norrig® “and? Ledhey®!, Using this lovmulation the individual skeletal body burdens extrapolated back to day one are as follows:
Sr® .. 1.6 jie
Bal? 2.7 ye
Fisstonable material
negilive
Based on the Sr® analysis, the Hunter-Ballou fission data® and the retention data of Hamilton,®
the following estimates of skeletal body burden in the Rongeliup group on day 1 were made:
a) rare earth group ~ 1.2 uc
b) I! - 6.4 mc
The integrated dose to the thyroid from I'*' and the shorter lived iodine isotopes (1!%2, 18, and
1/35) assuming a 20 per cent uptake/24 hours was 180 rep. The Ailinginae values were then
approximately one-half and the American were one-fourth of these values.
On the basis of a radiochemical] analysis on pooled urine samples collected from a cross
section of the Rongelap and American populations, 16-18 March, Los Alamos reported™ the
following estimate of fissions associated with material inhaled and: or ingested by the Ronyelap
native proup:
1) _ 5.5 x 10!° fissions
Sr® — 1.2 x 10"° fissions
Ba‘? _ 1.0 x 10'5 fissions
From these data, using certain assumptions as to the uptake and retention of these radioelements by the body, the following estimate of body burden at one day was derived:
Rongelap
(uc)
Sr®*
Ba #0
2.2
042
0.013
0.19
0.015
0.04
5.1 mc
1.9 mc
0.347
Ru!*
Cats
-T!3! and short lived
I'*! equivalents
Fissionable material
American
(uc)
0.27
Riae
es.
|
°°
0.016 urm
The initial body burden of I'"! and short lived iodine isotopes, energetically equivalent to I'*!
is 5.1 mc. The estimated total integrated dose to the thyroid from the iodine isotopes assuming
a 20 per cent uptake/24 hours and with corrections for decay of the very short lived isotopes
was calculated to be 150 rep for the Rongelap natives and 50 rep for the Americans.
It can be seen that with widely different approaches to the estimation of the body burden,
the results obtained are very similar with the exception of the Ba'® estimate.
An attempt lo detect bone-fixed radioactive emitters by means of sensitive film badges
taped below the knee over the epiphysis of the tibia on 40 exposed Marshallese yielded negu tive results.
Internal Radioactive Decontamination
Ethylene diamine tetracetic acid (EDTA) has been shown to be the most effective chemical
agent to date for mobilizing fission products from the skeleton and for increasing their ex-
cretion rate.-*.® This chelating agent was therefore used in a decontamination therapy
attempt on a group of seven Rongelap individuals having relatively large amounts of internally
°
eet uae
@ebeotve
*
*
eaueete
deposited radioelements. Oral administration of calcium EDTA, 1 gm/25 lb body weight daily
ee eer
5.4.3.