35
Oy a ye FeeRTRE EE
*
SKIN LESIONS AND EPILATION
a. Nhelter. Those individuals who remained
indoors of under the trees during the fallout
period developed less severe lesions.
h. Buthing. Small children who went wading in the ocean developed fewer foot lesions.
Most of the Americans, who were more aware
of the danger of the fallout. took shelter in
aluminum buildings, bathed and changed
clothes and consequently developed only very
nuld bets lesions.
«. Clothing. \ single layer of cotton material
offered almost complete protection, as was
demonstrated by the fact that lesions developed
almest entirely on the exposed parts of the body.
4.54
Factors
Favoring
Lesions
n. Aveda
uf
more
the Development
profuse
of
perspiration.
Lesions were more numerous in areas where
perspiration ts abundant such as the folds of the
reck, axillae, and antecubital fossae.
'
my
fw
pt
Lb. Delay in decontamination,
There was a
lelay of 1 or 2 days before satisfactory deconfanination Was posable. The prolonged contuct of radioactive materials on the skin during
this period increased the dose ta the skin.
However, the dose rate fell off rapidly and decontamimition would have had to be prompt in
order to have been most effective.
GO Difiendicindicontamination, The thick
hair, anointed with a heavy coconut-oil dressing, resulted in heayy contamination, Decontamination of the head was slower than for the
other parts of the body and may have enhanced
the development of epilation and scalp lesions.
3.6
Lack of Correlation With Hema-
tological Findings
Atrespre Were Mave to correlate the severity
and extensiveness of skin lesions with hematologic findings for individuals in the Rongelap
group. No positive correlation was found with
depression of any element.
Thus, the contami-
nation of the skin apparently did not. sig-
nificantly contribute to the total-body dose of
radiation.
3.7
Discussion
Turay Has Bers littl previous expenence
with radiation dermatitix rewulting from exposure to fallout material from nuclear detonations, and the general consensus, until this event,
has been that the hazani from fallout material
was negligible. From the present expe: ieuce
it isevident that following detonation of a large
scale device close to the ground, serious exposure of personnel with resulting radiation
lesions of the skin may occur from fallout
materisl, even at considerable distances from
the site of detonation. This incident is the firs
example of large numbers of radiation burns of
human beings produced by exposure to fall-
out material. With the Hiroshima and Nagasaki detonations fallout was not a problem since
the bonibs were detonated high in the air. The
flash burns of the Japanese were due to thertal radiation only.
Following the Alamogordo atomic detona-
tion, a number of cattle grazing near the point
of detonation developed lesions on their backs
due to the deposit of fallout material (4). Also,
following « detonation at the Nevada Test Site,
sixteen horses near the Test Site developed
lesions resulting from fallout depowt on their
backs (3).
Knowlton ¢¢ af. (6) described burns of the
hands of four individuals who were handling
fission product material following detonation
of a uuclear device. These burns were due
largely to beta radiation. The gross lestons
of the hands occurred from an exposure of
about 1 hour, resulting in doses between 3,000
and 16,000 rep of beta radiation (maximum en-
ergy about 1 Mev) with a small gamina component considered to be insignificant. The
lesions were described as developing in four
phases: (1) An initial phase which began almost immediately after exposure and consisted
of an erythema with tingling and burning of
the hands, reaching a peak in 4% hours and subsiding rapidly so that by 5 to 5 days there was
a relative absence of signs and symptoms; (2)
A second phase which occurred from about the