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Joint Committee on Atomic Energy ! Congress of the United States Enclosed are copies of a summary and re~ort entitl,,d “Medical Survey of Rongelap People Five and Six Years aftes Exposure to Fallout”. I believe the,Joint Committee will find this material of interest. The report was prepared by the Brookhaven National ciates. The summary was prepared by Dr. William E. Lotz of this In brief, the Marshsllese ere not showing clinical signs and symptoms or abnormalities clearly attributable to their 1954 ex$8sure. They co tinue to show, however, low body burdens of Sr ~CS137 and Zn 5, all of which we believe to origins e from the ~ontamination in their current food supplies; tthe h 5 is believed to come from the seafood caught locally. If addition~ copies of the report and summary are desired, we shall be pleased to forward ‘them. Division of Biolo~ and Medicine Report and Summary (2)
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FIVE AND SIX YEARS Annualmedical nrveya of the MmAallese Islanderswere carriedout in March 1959 and lkrch 1960, 5 and 6 years after their accidentale~osure to the falloutfrom the weapon e~loded at BikiniMarch 1, 1954. During the 1959 survey76 e~sed persons, includingtheir children, and 166 unexposed Rongelappeople,who servedas a txmparison population, were KwajaleinAtollswere exaninedas controlsfor the growthand development studieson the exposedRongelapchildren. The 1960 surveywas brlei’, only the exposedpeoplebeing exemlned. As a resultof their eqmure in 1954,many of the Rongelappeoplehad experiencedearly symptmnsrelatedto the gastrointestinal.tract and beta burns of the skin along with spotty epildion. Later they showed depressionof their peripheralblood elementscommensuratewith the calculateddoses of gamma radiation(175r to 64 people and 69r to M people). In addition,radiochemlcal.analysesof urine maples indicatad that they had acqpiredfractionalbody buz@ensof certain radionuclMes. Mspite these evidences of eqosure, acute radiation sickness did not develop in the people and there were no deaths t~n (or subsequently) that couldbe assignedto their radiationeqosure. MO specifictherapy lymphocytesand platelets,proceededgraduallyover the ensutngyears. The beta burns, which appearedabout two weeks after exposure,were, for the moot part, superficialin nature and healed in several weeks; only a few lesionspersistedand these were not dlsabllngin any way. we hair regrew normally, beginning about three months after exposure. The internallyabsorbedradionucLtdescaused m known acute effects and were rapidlyexcretedso that bard detectableactivitywas found a fwar or two later,exceptng the ,Sr0 and CS137 isotopes present in the evaluatingthe generalmedical statusof the people in comparisonwith the uneqosed controlpopulation,particularlyas to slowlydeveloping Medicalhistoriesof the people during 1958 to 1960 were essentially uneventful;no specialdiseaseoccurredand there were no significant differences in mortality rates. Four deathshawe occurredin the eqposed people since exposuregiving a mortalityrate of 8.1 per 1000 Population$ comparedwith 8.3 per 1000 for me controlpopulationand 6.8 for the *sWU. Islandsas a whole. The birth rate in the exposed group over the past six years indicatesno noticeablechangein fertility. The 24 births representa rate of ~ per NJOO population,comparedwith 62 per 1000 for the controlpopulationand 37.3 for the &shall Islands (1957).
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generallyin a stateof good health. exposedand unexposedpeople to be No conditions were seen that could minor disordersin both adultsand childrenwas about the same in the chronologicalage group,three boys and one girl out of five boys and two girls in the exposedgroup exhibitedsignificantlyretardedskeietal are too small to warrantinte~retation. A.cardiovascularSUIT q of the adultsshowedno outstandingdifferences betweenthe exposedand unexposedgroups. An arthritissurvey showedno real diffeZ’’ence8betweenthe exposedand the unexposedpeople;the incidenceis about the same as that seen in An ophthalmologicalsurveydemonstratedno differencesbetweenthe exposed and unexposedgroupsexceptpossiblya slightlygreaterincidenceof cornealhypertrophyand scars in the exposedgroup. A dentalsurve~ showedno significantdifferencesin either cariesrate or incidenceof periodontaldiseasebetween exposedd unexposedgroups. Radiationexposureappearsnot to have affecteddentitionin the The late effectsof radiation are difficult to assess as they are those associatedwith normal ageing (skinloosenews,elasticity,and senile arteriosclerosis; retrogressicmof neuromuscularfunctionand hand strengthwere measuredor esthated on a O to 4 + scale). Comparisonof thesemeasurementsin eqosed and unexposedindividualsof the same age groups revealedno clear differences. J(2AE One case of cancerdevelopedfn the exposedgroup five years after eqomre, but this is too Soou$ it is believed,to be relatedto radiation exposure. Leukemiasurveysincludingphysicalfindings,stu~es of white showedno evidenceof leukemiaor leukemictendency. Geneticeffectshave not been specificallystudiedbecauseof the small numberof people involved. However, no apparentradiation-induced geneticchangeshave been detectedon routinephysicalexaminationin the first-generationchildren of exposedparents.
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year-to-yearmean levelsof leukocytesin both the exposedand unexposedgroups. The mean leukocytelevel of the expos& group showed a decreaseat the 1960 survey comparedto 1959 (no uneqosed people were examined). The reasonsfor these fluctuationsare not apparent. At five years post-e~sure (1959),the eqosed people still had mean plateletlevels10 to 156 below those of the unexposedgroup,but in 1960 the lymphocytelevelsfor the first time eqyahd those of the unexposedgroup. The mean ery-throcyte levelswere slightlylower in the exposedpeoplebut a generalanemictendencyexists in all Marshallese,both exposedand unexposed. The fact that some of the blood elementsin the exposedgroup have not yet returnedto the radiationeffecton the bone marrow persists,but other,not inmwdiately Radionuclide body burdensof CS13’7,Z@ and Sr9° wre evaluated by measurementin a whole-body counteror by estimationfrum radiochemlcal _ses of the urine. The mean body buxdens for 1959 were: CS137 = and Sr9~ continueto rise but at decreasingrates,whereasthe level for CS137 appearsto have reachedequilibriumand now to be diminishing. Littleor none of the body burdensof the exposedgroup appearto be due to the initial.exposure,since at presentthere is Zittledifference betweenthe levelsof the exposedand unexposedpopulationsllvlngon RongelapIsland. This maybe explainedby the fact that additional weapon tests held in the area have deposited additional fission products into the environment, and the fact that certain staples of diet are imported and, hence, ‘thepeople are not livlng in a “closed environment.“ Consequently, it may neverbe possible to equate body burdens are now and till be of small significance in terms of radiation Judgingfrom the Japanesepopulationsbeing studiedby the Atomic Bomb CasualtyCommissionat Hinshima and Nagasaki,the next five years will be the criticalperiod for the developmentof leuk~ia in the effectsmay occur in man such &s prematureageing,shorteningof life span, increasein degenerativediseases,genetic@anges, etc., continuedcarefulexaminationof these population is ln”qrder;all effectsshouldbe documentedand therapeuticproceduresinstituted relationof the envlronmenta.1contaminationon Rongelapto the body burdens o? radionuclides of the people living there, Imperfect thou&h it is, warrants close study. The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Rdiations now reviews these yearly surveys.