more than 30 years there is no evidence of cancer of the skin.
In
fact I do not know of a case of cancer of the skin resulting from
beta radiation.
At CROSSROADS,
I examined many men for skin
contamination and I do not recall any excessive exposures and no
evidence of "beta burns" were noted.
So it seems extremely unlikely
that any skin cancers would result.
My second reference is to internal absorption of radiactive
materials.
Internal absorption of fallout in the Marshallese was
readily evident from radiochemical urine analyses.
Absorption was
largely from ingestion of contaminated food and water with much less
absorption from inhalation.
This may have been partly due to the
fact that the particle size of fallout was generally too large to
get into the lungs.
Animals removed from the island, who had been
exposed showed most of the radioactivity in the gut with little in
the lungs,
Radioiodine, which later resulted in thyroid tumors in
the Marshallese, was the only radioelement to exceed the permissible
level.
No other late effects have been noted from absorption of
other radionuclides.
It seems probable that the internal absorption
of radionuclides in CROSSROADS personnel would have been for less
than in the heavily exposed Marshallese since
or no fallout from Test Able;
(b)
(a)
there was little
after Baker inhalation of
radioactive particles would have been minimized due to washing down
of the ships prior to boarding,
the water tending to scrub out