~17levels to be higher than in the American team members and thus substantiated
the findings reported on previous surveys,
Radiochemical urine analyses - Radiochemical urine analyses of 24 hr. and
pooled samples showed that cst? levels had decreased somewhat since 1958
(around 5 nC/1l in 1958 and 3 nC/1 in 1963),
were about four times less,
The levels in the Utirik samples
The sr°0 levels in the Rongelap people were about
the same or slightly less than in 1962,
The levels in the Utirik people were more
than four times less than in the Rongelap samples,
Interpretation of these results in terms of body burdens of cst3? indicates
that equilibriun with environmental contamination has been attained for that
isotope,
The fact that urinary excretion of sr?° showed no increase over 1962
levels is encouraging,
SUMMARY
This is an interim report of the medical surveys of the people of Rongelap
and Utirik Islands at nine years after accidental exposure to fallout radiation
in 1954,
Only the major findings were outlined and details will be included in
a combined Brookhaven National Laboratory report following the 10 year survey in
1964,
Medical status of the people of these Islands during the past year had been
generally good except for a poliomyelitis epidemic which involved some 23 children
and 2 adults on Rongelap resulting in death of a 55 year old woman in the exposed
group,
Utirik was spared the epidemic,
A total of 4 deaths had occurred in the
exposed Rongelap group, 1 in a child of exposed parents, and 1 in a man in the
unexposed comparison population,
to radiation exposure,
Deaths in the exposed group could not be related
The six deaths that occurred on Utirik Island in the
exposed population since the people were last examined four years ago appeared to
represent about the usual mortality rate and no illnesses or deaths could be related
to radiation exposure,
Birth rates were about normal on both Islands during the