ay I218 tet fa ah i NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: CLINICAL STAFF Oea 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 ower MARSHALL