1
OID LESIONS IN MARSHALLESE EXPOs("TO FALLOUT
(AS OF MAY,
Marshall
Island Group
(vadiation dose-gamma}-
Age at
Exposure
Rongelap (175 rads
gamma exposure)
In-utero
<10
L1-16
>16
Estimated
Thyroid 1
dose-rads
Thyroid
Lesions
Percent
Thyroid
Surgery
175 + ?
675 - 1440
33.3 (1/3)
89.5 (17/19)
15
335 - 675
12.5 (1/83
335
all
-
Rongelap (on Ailingne
In YEFG°
Island -69 rads gamma
[16
exposure)
all
Utirik? (14 rads gamma
exposure)
2
1352,
1535,
9
390 : 480
132
-
-
<10
-
all
-
-
4
0.6 (1/157)
1.6 (1/61)
0
3.6 (7/194)
2
4.7 (5/106)
3.6 (5/137)
-
0
4
0.0 (0/31)
-
2
5.8 (6/104)
4.5 (6/133)
-
4.7 (3/64)
3
3.2 (5/157)
-
17
22.2 (4/18)
-
.
§.3 (1/19)
5.4 (2/37)
1
at
all
22
1
Malignant
Lesions
Percent
3
33:3 ee
16.6
-
>10
i153
32.8 (21/64)
0.0 (0/53)
all
1nose from L351,
-
40,- 80
<10
Likiep unexposed (1970)
8.1 (3/37)
<10
>10
Rongelap unexposed
1974)
2
0
0
0
-
-
-
-
I plus gamma dose.
Based on number of original people exposed.
in group.
In parentheses number of cases/total number
Imhe thyroid is considered fully developed by age 16.
“Di €ference of opinion as to whether or not one lesion was malignant.
was that it was benign.
.
1.0 (1/104)
Majority opinion
the more energetic shorter-lived isotopes of iodine contributed less to the total
thyroid dose in the Utirik peopie due to later fallout. One might surmise also that the
biological effectiveness of the thyroid dose per rad would be less in that group.
Srifteen children 10-17 years of age at exposure in this group received estimated thyroid
doses between 22 and 40 rads,
tn addition to thyroid lesions, one case of acute myelogenous leukemia was discovered
in September 1972 in a 19-year-old Rongelap boy who had received 175 rad gamma radiation
at one year of age. He died November, 1972.