“KIN
the vast majority of cises
been generally observed
ment of radianion cancer
LESIONS
Sued charges dave
oricr te tue develep
07 The lack of any
marked histological lamave o month~ after ex
posure implies good repar:
di Since ow en
ergy radiation was chieHy responsable for the
skin lesions, the prognos: appears better he
vause none of 1,100 ndividuals exposed to law
voltage X-ray for dermatoiogieal -onditiens
developed epidermoid car tnoma oe to 28 vears
after treatment (27)
ra Furthermore epi
theliomata rarely develop after a single dose
of radiation to the «kin «
fi Lastly the
incidence of skin career i Negroes » one-sixth
to one-ninth the ine dener 3 tsuensiars (2
in the United States
Other factors make the outlook less favor
able: ta) Deeper lesions of he feet und neck
continued to show pigment aberrations and
slight atrophy at | vear ind one severe ear
lesion showed marked atrophy and scarring
at this time. (b) Tous net snown wrether or
not radiation of the epidermis pes xe can predis
pose to malignant change.
“ince the epidermis
was heavily irradiated in ‘ese eases, Compared
to the dermis, this becomes an unportant con
sideration.
i¢)} Since many children ana
young adults were involved, the |.fe expectancy
of a large number of the mdisiduals will exceed
the long induction y eried for tie development
of radiation cancer observed i radiologists
id) Exposure to trepicai sunlignt, potentia ly
carcinogenic in itself. may inerease the proba
bility of neoplastic change
#) The intluence
of the sublethal whole-body exposure recess eq
ANTH
39
FPILATION
‘ue
cegrowth of hair, beginning about 9
veek> offer exposure in the Marshallese. was
it iubout the same time as noted in the Japanese
oermar (11), and slightly later than the time
fo regrowth (6 to % weeks) noted in the Japa-
bomb vasualties. In contrast to the
vbigmentation changes noted in the
reidiited skin of the Marshallese, there were
ese
narked
10 Pigment aberrations in the new hair, which
sas observed to he of normal texture and abunfoie at (i months. Increased graying has been
eported on tnimals (38-36) but has not been
‘1 human beings. Neither was there any
tpowaranece of dark hair in aged individuals
ato already had grav hair as has been reported
eer
ho wuman beings (32, 37.and 38).
TPwe
bomb casualties
(30)
In the Japa-
und the Japanese
ushermen (it) the new hair was also normal in
olor texture, and abundance.
“he nature of the bluish-brown transverse
‘muds of pigmentation that developed beneath
* he nails is not known. Since it occurred in
“le majority of the more heavily exposed Marhellese groups and in all 5 of the American
Neyroes, but none of the white Americans, it
tpoeared to be a response peculiar to darkKianed races. The phenomenon was apparently oroduced by gammaradiation with a dosLure as iow as 75 rsinee this was the estimated
fave that the American Negroes received in the
tbsence of significant contamination of the
sutton (39) has reported a case of simiya pats
uP Ungernal plementation which developed in
regress, following 150 r of soft X-irradiation
ote hands.
hy these people on i iduct on of skin cancer 1
not known.
The occurrence of epilat on 2 te 3 weeks after
exposure corresponds rough y ta the time of
appearance of epilation on ‘he Japanese exposec
to gammaradiation ut Hiroshima and Nagasak:
(29, 30). Since the grearer amount of epia
tion occurred over a oenoc of a week ta 10 days
there was apparent yoo phasu response de
pendent on the growth ove wef the follicles «on
active. or telogen and active coe ar ager follicles»
as has been reported
3.8
Summary
" soW NG THE DETONATION of a thermonuclear
lee signiheant amounts of visible radioactive
mitteria were deposited on inhabited atolls pro-
vuottus skin Jesions, whole-body radiation incury and some internal deposition of radionu-
Lrehes
The skin lesions in the more heavily
or tuninated groups were characterized by
honnuatad barning of the skin for 24-48 hours.
‘;oimtton and sken lesions were observed, be-