5 ow DNL Veccedle . Me : a d | The Medical Research Center REPOSITORY | National 3rookhaven Me iat Lanarvatcer aa tava ee couccron(lat r nonne A rer LU a ipPton, L. » h, dey New at | Upton, York FOLDER Krom Radia iS stodes in Hie Dre senerc Qf. CaideceT wh LA. Srudte, Ga, Univ wt Minne COnTem Yor Sor Fi werron I 7ma'y 2] ot The Santana! EVPantien Cy . | \\ La — le Lands | , CH €f:BSFAH 7 6, 4tes (hi - AOLBT4 RADIOISOTOPES AND ENVIRONMENTAL CIRCUMSTANCES: THE INTERNAL RADIOACTIVE CONTAMINATION OF A PaciFic IsLanp ComM™MuUNITY Exposep To LOCAL FALLOUT S. H. Cohn, J. §. Robertson, and R. A. Conard? BEST COPY AVAILABLE Medical Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton. L. L., New York A umaue opportunity for the stud, of the internal radiation hazard associated with the contamination of an inhabited land mass by local fallout was aftorded when several of the Marshall Islands were accidentally contaminated to varving degrees as a consequence of the fallout-producmg nuclear detonation of March 1. 1954 (Cronkite et al, 1956). The area contaminated was thousands of square miles bevond the range of the thermal and blast cffects. Two hun- dred thirty-nine Marshallese persons were exposed to levels of gamma radiation, ranging from 175 ron Rongelap to 14 1 on Utink. Further, the inhabitants of Rongelap and Utink were also subjected to an acute inhalation and ingestion exposure during the 45-hour penod that elapsed prior to evacuation. Their initial body burdens of internal emitters were estimated from analysis of their unne and also from data obtained on animals simultaneously exposed. These data indicate that the acute hazard from the internal emitters was very small as compared to the concomitant external dose. Medical survevs have been made yearly since the accident in order to follow up the recovery progress of the exposed people (Bond et al, 1955; Cronkite et al, 1955; Conard et al, 1956, 1957, 1959). Within a month of the accident, islands of the following atolls were surveved: Rongelap, Rongenk, Bikar, Likicp and Utink. Numerous land animals, birds and marine specimens, and samples of plants, soil and water were collected for analysis of the content and distribution of radioactive material (Cohn ct al, . 1955). At the same time, a gamma dose rate survey was made overseveral | typical land arcas to provide data on the degree of the external radiation hazard. SABES ‘It is not possible to acknowledge individually the many whe have becu asoceted - with collecting and analyzing the data over the five-seat per: thestuds. It is posible only to mention the group leaders and the laboratories with which wher are oeanertted: Atoeab Commission, Division of Biology and Medicine—G. M. Dunning; New York J. H. Harley; Argonne National Laboratory—C. E. Miller; Brookhaven National Laboratory— V. P. Bond and E. P. Cronkite; Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory——P. Harris; U. S$. Naval Radio- logical Defense Laboratory; University of Washington, Laboratory of Radiation Biolog. —E. E. Held; and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research—K. T. Woodward. 5012718 06 OS ° 8 : ue