Medical survey of Rongelap people eight years after exposure to fallout.

Abstract

Results are presented of a medical survey of the people of Rongelap in the Marshall Islands, carried out in March 1962 at 8 years after accidental exposure to fallout from a high yield thermonuclear device during Castle Operation in the Pacific Proving Grounds in March 1954. Sixty-four inhabitants of Rongelap, 105 nautical miles from the detonation, received an estimated dose of 175 r of whole-body radiation, contamination of the skin sufficient to result in beta burns, and slight internal absorption of radioactive materials through inhalation and ingestion. Eighteen Rongelap people on a nearby island received an external dose of about 69 r, and 157 Marshallese on Utirik Island received an estimated dose of 14 r whole-body radiation. The fallout was not visible on this island and no skin effects developed. Findings are summarized of surveys made during the preceding 7 years. Findings are compared with those on comparison populations of Marshallese people. Data are presented from physical examinations, a cancer detection and leukemia survey, growth and development studies in children, ophthalmological examinations, studies on residual beta burns, a dental survey, studies of aging criteria, and estimation of body burden of Sr/sup 90/. Findings persisting in the exposed population include incompletemore » recovery of certain blood elements to levels found in the unexposed people, retardation of growth and development in some of the irradiated children, and pigmented changes at the sites of radiation burns of the sknn. (C.H.)« less