BERKELEY: RADIATION LABORATORY
Memorandum to Dr. J. H. Lawrence: pg. 3: June 8, 1948
IV.
Discussion of Radiation Tolerances:
Dr. Failla spoke about the advisability of lowering the permissible level
to 0.05 r per day instead of the present 0.1 r per day and of shifting the basis
to a weekly level instead of a daily level, that is approximately 0.3 r per week.
This he felt would make many people happier who worry about over-exposure on a
certain day. He emphasized that no specific evidence has been accumulated which
indicates that the previous level is too high but that he has the impression
that it would be worth lowering it. This of course refers to tota] body irradia~
tion. He has suggestedthat one consider allowing a greater local exposure, For
example, say 0.6 r per week to the hands for gamma rays, For beta rays he thought
one might even allow as much as 1.2 reps per week. Some debate ensued concerning
the advisability of allowing the increased tolerances for local areas but no
suggested change in Dr. Faillats levels was made.
Discussion was presented by Dr. White concerning the recent injury of
several members of the Einewetok bomb tests. Four men were involved, They had
handled filters from drone planes sampling the surrounding gases. Because they
felt that they could avoid total body irradiation, they did not use tongs in
working with the material thus greatly increasing the exposure on the hands,
In one case, after four hours tingling was noted in the fingers and in other
cases such paresthesias were noted between six and twenty four hours later.
lowing this, three of these men developed blisters on the fingers.
Fol-
In one case
the first thing that was noted was a blanched out area over the phalangeal region.
Within eight hours after the original onset of symptoms a minimal swelling of the
fingers was noted. Within twenty four hours in the case of the man having the
blanched out area a frank bulla had developed with surrounding erythema.
In all
cases the bleod count was normal, the Van den Bergh test was at the upper limits
of normal.
One of the four individuals showed a low sperm count.
Healing has
been slow in the case of all of these lesions and there has been progressive _
reddening spreading from the palmer surface to the interphalangeal spaces.
The
therapy has consisted of cool packs plus elevation,
Anexposure meter in the case of one man who did use tongs for the entire
operation indicated 1 r of irradiation. Dr. Failla stated that the early appearance of paresthesia and swelling means that these men received thousands of r to
the involved areas,
There wags some discussion concerning Blood counts of individuals employed
in Radiation Laboratories, Dr. Warren felt that people with counts persistently
elevated above normal (10,000 for the eastern states at least) should not be
employed in radiation laboratories. His impression is that these people may
have hyperactive marrows and that such a marrow is possibly more sensitive to
injurious agents.
He felt that one should certainly try to get old medical ree
cords to determine whether there was any indication toward a progressive rise
in count.
The case of one man employed at one of the installations whose count
has risen from 10,000 to 14,000 without any kmown basis was discussed, Dr.
Warren felt strongly that this person should not be exposed to radiation any
further,
A discussion was held on the criteria in using radioisotopes in clinical |
research, These were a) that no conceivably harmful materials should be given,
b) no material known to be harmful should be given and c) that the knowledge and
consent of the patient and one relative were necessary. It was emphasized,
however, that it was unwise and umnecessary to ask the patient to sign a release
‘ since such a release is not legally binding,