Radiation Injury Following an A-Bomb Explosion

Washington DC: Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, June, 1951. Reprinted from the Annals of Internal Medicine, Vol. 36, No. 6,, June, 1952. Wraps. Good. Format is approximately 6.75 inches by 10 inches. Pages 1444-1458, [1] pages. Stamp and Ink notations on first page. This was presented at the Thirty-second Annual Session of the American College of Physicians, St. Louis, Mo., April 10, 1951. Topics covered include Thermal Radiation Effects, and Nuclear Radiation Effects. This document includes footnotes, 11 black and white photographs, a summary, and a bibliography. On the day of the bombing the outstanding symptoms of the Japanese exposed to radiation were nausea and vomiting, followed soon by fever, leukopenia and diarrhea. Epilation, purpura and oropharyngeal lesions appears about two weeks after exposure. Epilation was the surest external sign of exposure to ionizing radiation. This work reported that blast injuries and burns accounted for approximately 85 per cent of the casualties from an atomic bomb explosion high in the air. Studies in Japan indicated that 90 per cent of all persons who needed medical care in the first week had burns and that 60 to 85 per cent of all patients were burned. The ionizing radiation from an explosion of the Hiroshima or Nagasaki type is delivered in about 90 seconds and 50 per cent of the total is delivered in the first second. Clinically significant amounts of radioactivity are not left in the target area following detonations of this type. Because ionizing radiation injuries are unique effects of the atomic bomb, these phenomena sometimes provoke emphasis out of proportion to the actual danger and thus create new psychologic hazards.