22
ing on their homeisland was small, it was decided
to allow the people to return.
Rongelap people are interrelated and represent a
remarkably homogeneous population. Theylive
under the same environmental,sociological, and
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The increasingly widespread uses of radioac-
tive sources in research and industry increase the
possibility of exposure of people to various forms of
ionizing radiation. Therefore, greater knowledge
of such effects on humanbeings is badly needed.
Considerable research is being carried out on ef-
fects of radiation on animals, but there are obvious
economic conditions and are likely to remain together as a groupindefinitely. As contrasted with
the Japanese,the dose ofgammaradiation received
is reasonably well established. Also in contrast to
the Japanese, these people have been subjected to
only minimal psychic and no physical trauma.
In view of these facts, continued medicalsurveys of the Marshallese people are anticipated on
an annual basis.
limitations in extrapolating such data to the human species. Human experimentation,particu-
larly with regard to whole-body radiationeffects,
is limited to therapeutic use of radiation in diseased people. Though such data are useful, they
must be evaluated with caution. The most valuable information about humanradiation effects,
therefore, has comefrom people irradiated from
atomic bombs such as the Japanese people of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Marshallese,
from a few isolated laboratory accidents, and from
individuals having ingested radium. The group of
irradiated Marshallese people offers a most valuable source of data on humanbeings who have
sustained injury from all the possible modes ofex-
posure-penetrating radiation,beta radiationof the
skin, and internal absorption of radioactive materials. The acute.and subacuteeffects of these different forms of exposure have been well documented andfor the most part have subsided. Even
though,as pointed out, the radioactive contamination of Rongelap Island is considered perfectly
safe for human habitation, the levels of activity
are higher than those found in other inhabited
locations in the world. The habitation of these
people on the island will afford most valuable
ecological radiation data on human beings. Since
only smail amounts of isotopes are necessary for
tracer studies, the various radioisotopes present
can be traced from the soil, through the food
chain, and into the human being, where the tissue
and organ distribution, biological half-lives, and
excretion rates can be studied. Such investigations
will be done by the use of whole-body gammaspectroscopy of the people and of sample materials,
and by radiochemical analyses ofsoil, food, and
humanexcreta.
Several factors favorably influence these studies
on the Marshallese. The exposed and unexposed
Summary
Results are reported of a medical survey on the
Marshallese people exposed to radioactive fallout
three years previously. Examinations werecarried out at Majuro in the Marshall Islands on 82
people from Rongelap who had been exposed to
the heaviest fallout and on a comparison population of unexposed Rongelap people matchedfor
age and sex. A Navy LST was used for the second
phase of the examinations to examine 144 people
of Uurik Island who received the least fallout.
The survey showed thatall the irradiated Marshallese people were makingsatisfactory recovery
from their radiation exposure. Thefollowingis a
summary ofthe findings on the Rongelap people.
ACUTE AND SUBACUTE EFFECTS
Penetrating radiation
Diseases. In general the incidenceofdisease,in-
fectious and noninfectious, was about the samein
the exposed as in the unexposed group. No symptoms were present that could be related to radiation effects. Several interesting findings were noted
in both the irradiated and unirradiated groups:
the incidence of congenital anomalies was high;
peptic ulcer and psychic disturbances wererare;
the incidence of dental caries was very high; and
intestinal parasitism was widespread.
Nutrition. Nutrition appeared to be as good in
the exposed as in the unexposed groups.
Growth and development. In the exposed children
from about 4 through 9 years of age there was a
slight lag in bone maturation (based on x-ray
studies of the left wrist), and these children were