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NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: CLINICAL
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RapIOIopINE FaLLouT anp Its EFFeEcts iN
‘ THE MarsHacy Isianps
makes much difference because there is not
can condense and be deposited rapidly. For
elements like sodium with great natural
abundance and that can be produced by
neutrons of varying energies, it does make
a big difference.
Dr. Ropsins: If there are no further
Dr. Rosert A. Conarn: Before I go into
a discussion of the late effects of radiation
resulting from this accident, I would like
to review very briefly the accident itself
- and some of the acute early effects that occurred in the Marshallese people. A large
thermonuclear device was detonated on the
Bikini Island on March 1, 1954. As Dr. Rall
pointed out, this bomb exploded close to
questions we will go on with the second
the surface of the earth so that the fireball
touched the earth and the ocean drawing up
part of our discussion and hear something
about the events as they occurred in the
tremendous amounts of particulate material
into the cloud, and this material became
Marshall Islands. 1 am happy to introduce
mixed with the radioactive fission products.
to you Dr. Robert A. Conard, Senior Scien-
tist at the Brookhaven National Labora-
tory, Upton, N. Y. Dr. Conard was a mem-
+
-_,
Annals of
Internal Medicine
SOB Ee,
Dr. RALL: For iodine I do not think it
much tellurium or iodine occurring naturally. The main factor would be just an
enormous amount of material on which it
“4
.
This radioactive material, because it was
. heavier, fell from the cloud in a downwind
ber of the Naval Medical Research Institute
in Bethesda in 1954 and was one of the key
members of the team that was formed hur-
riedly to cope with the unfortunate occurrence in the Pacific Islands. In the years
since then Dr. Conard has organized annual
expeditions to the Islands and thus was on
the scene when the late effects of the radia-
posited on the skin and on the hair of the
people. The fallout was less dense the fur-
Taga TEamen2
tion became manifest.
direction, contaminating several inhabited
atolls to the east. Figure 2 shows a rough
map of the Marshall Islands and the area
involved in the fallout. On Rongelap Island, 100 miles from Bikini, the fallout resembled a light snow and actually coated
the ground and the trees and became de-
“yee
ISLANDS
LO
Q
o
MAJURO
S
Ficure 2. Map of fallout area, Marshall Islands, March 1954.
5
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MARSHALL