Clinical Evaluation of Late Radiation Effects in a Human Population — with Special Reference to Possible Cardiovascular System Changes

Abstract

The present observations are the result of an accidental event of radioactive fallout in the Marshall Islands in March, 1954 during experiments on a thermonuclear device. Despite careful meteorological surveys and forecasts, an unpredicted shift of winds at high altitudes led to the movement of radioactive fallout away from the immediate vicinity and open ocean spaces adjacent to the test site to be deposited on a more extensive area of ocean and atolls on the eastern portion of the Marshall Islands. Some atolls were inhabited. The accidental exposure was immediately appreciated. Within 48 hours, observations were obtained on the amount of radioactive fallout to which the inhabitants were exposed. On the Island of Rongelap, 105 nautical miles from the testing area on the Bikini Atoll, 64 persons were subjected to the highest dose, an estimated 175 r of whole body gamma radiation; they developed beta lesions of the skin, loss of hair, and evidence by nausea and leukopenia of internal absorption of radioactive material. The radiation dose sustained by this group was consistent with the temporary clinical disturbances noted. On the Island of Ailingnae, adjacent to Rongelap, 18 persons, and on Rongerik Island, 40 miles away from Rongelap, 28 American men received about 90 r whole body gamma radiation with slight hematopoetic and skin effects.

Zusammenfassung

Den vorliegenden Beobachtungen, die für die Klinik in mehrfacher Hinsicht von allergrößtem Interesse sind, liegt ein unvorhergesehener Niedergang von radioaktivem fallout auf die Marshall-Inseln während der thermonuklearen Experimente im März 1954 zugrunde. Trotz sorgfältiger meteorologischer Überwachung und Beachtung der Wetterlage führte ein nicht voraussehbarer Wechsel der Windrichtung zu einer Verlagerung des radioaktiven fallout von der unmittelbaren Umgebung des Versuchsortes und dem anschließenden offenen Seegebiet auf ein ausgedehntes Areal des özeans und der Ostlichen Teile der Marshall-Inseln, von denen einige bewohnt waren.

These studies were conducted under the auspices of the Medical Research Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York, and the Division of Biology and Medicine, United States Atomic Energy Commission. Any opinion expressed in this article is solely that of the author and does not reflect necessarily an opinion or conclusion of the United States Atomic Energy Commission.