49 An level ¥ eviously - crabs has not become The Sr content of coconut over the years to allow lifting of sufficiently lower —_ the ban on eating them. bility onsi Since we have been assigned the resp radioactive of monitoring the body burdens of rn to 1€ Mean &¥ y retu materials in the Bikini people when the Zn level ¥ mical urine their home island from Kili, radioche ivity re. F .59 analyses were done on 14 Bikini people in 1969 9Sr were As expected, the levels of 137Cs and quite low. In view ofthe radiological decontami of tion cipa anti nation being done on Bikini in their return, no significant increase in body bur- dens of the Be en Gene leislikelyto occur. LAL_STUDIES SPECIALS! ly Inh6ritedCharacteristics; jodGrouping Studies 1Ci level about 5 feA large body of data has been collected from . Sgenetic studies on the Marshallese people. The recmissible sults not only are of great anthropologicalinterest Tge). but also may showin time somepossible genetic id resid- ects of radiation exposurein future generations. F Si Blood grouping studies show that the Marshallese havea relatively high B gene frequency, a high N gene frequency, an extremely high R! genefrequency, and total absence of Kell and Diego factors. These characteristics differ from those of Polynesians and suggest a relationship of the Marshallese people with Southeast Asians and Indonesians. Haptogiobin studies showeda frequencyof the Hp! gene higher than in European populations thus far tested and consistent with that of populations living near the equator. The distribution of haptoglobin types showed the populationto be relatively homogeneous.®! Transferrins in all sera were type CC, the common European type.61 @-Aminoisobutyric acid urinary levels showed the Marshallese to be the highest excreters 8,a peak § 2 Marrow, yr 175 384 359 960’s the Longelap of this acid of any population thusfar reported.62.63 h the en- vurden in | be con- ire, since ody bur- aps living ‘cted dur3 of 137Cs It is spec- explained imported wn items. . Levels in the exposed group were about the same as in the unexposed group, and nocorrelation was found with body burdenlevel of radionuclides; this indicates that there is probably no correlation with radiation exposure. Hemoglobin types were considered normal (all had type AAg). Sickling tests showed nosickling tendencyin anyof the people. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase of the red cells appeared to be normal in the Marshallese. Studies of Gm phenotypes showed the Marshallese to have 100% Gm®+)and nearly 100% Gm+). There was a complete absence of Gm* and a high frequency 5005306 of Gm-like (Gm‘).& Serum studies for the Ag system reveal that the Rongelapese compared with other world populations have a high frequencyof C.deB. antiserum reactors and a low frequency of New York antiserum reactors.£5 Considerable caution must be exercised in evaluating theresults of these studies on genetically inherited characteristics because of the small number of samples tested. The data do seem to indicate relative homogeneity of the population andclosest kinship with people of Southeast Asia. These data also may be useful as a base line, should genetic changes appear in later generations, possibly related to radiation exposure. eee Other Laboratory Studies Serum protein levels were generally on the high side of normal; electrophoretic patterns showed the increase in proteins to be due largely to an increase in the gammaglobulin fraction (see Aging Studies). The reason for this is not apparent. Numerouschronic infections may be an explanation. Sodium levels in the urine and food indicated . about the same consumption of NaCl as in Americans. The generally lower incidence of hypertension in the Marshallese might be related to the fact that the former native diet was probably lower in salt content than the present more Westernized diet.®6 It will be interesting to see whether the incidence of hypertension will later increase. Serum cholesterol levels (1957, 1959) were some- what lower in the exposed population than in the comparison or Utirik populations but werein the low normal range. No abnormally high or low readings were noted. Serum creatinine levels (1957) were in the normal range with no abnormallevels noted. Serum vitamin By2 concentrations (1958, 1959) were generally significantly higher than American levels. The possibility of contamination of the samples with bacteria producing vitamin B,2 must be considered, since myeloproliferative and liver diseases were not seen. Folic actd levels were found to be somewhat low in the Rongelap population and probablyreflected low dietary folic acid. Glucosuria and elevated blood sugar were found ina number of Rongelap people. A relatively high incidence of diabetes is prevalent in the Marshallese people. . A survey for intestinal parasites (1958) showed 75% of the people to be infected with various