had diarrhea.
At this time many also experienced itching and burning of the
akin and a few complained of lacrimation and burning of the eyes.
Follow
ing this, the pecple remained asymptomatic until about 2 weeks after the
accident, when cutaneous lesions and patchy Joss of hair developed due to
beta irradiation of the skin.
Hematological examinations showed increasing
depression of peripheral blood clements, and redio=-chemical examinations
of the urine revealed the presence of detectable radioactivity in the samples.
During the first few months many of the people showed a slight
weight loss.
It is not known if this was associated with irradiation effect
or enviromental change.
A.
Hematological findings
Figures 1 and 2 show chronologically the changes (in absolute mean
counts) that have occurred in peripheral blocd elements of the 64 Rongelap
people who received the largest dose of radiation,
Simllar but less marked
changes have occurred in the 18 Rongelap people who were on Allingnae Atoll
at the time of exposure.
1. “BC.
The leukocytes largely reflected the changes that occurred
in the neutrophiles (see Figure 1) and will not be discussed separately.
Unexplained changes in the mean level of blood elements have occurred from
year to year in both exposed and unexposed populations.
2. Neutropbiles.
During the first few weeks after exposure, the
neutrophiles fluctuated considerably, then gradually fell to a low of about
50% of the comparison population at about the sixth week.
(Figure 1).
Ree
covery was slow, and it was not until the one year examination that the
counts returned to the comparison population level and have been found to
be essentially the same as the unexposed group at i, 2, 3, and 4 years postexposure.
-5=