Volume 1

The nature of radioactive fallout and its effects on man : Hearings before the Special Subcommittee on Radiation of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, Congress of the United States, Eighty-fifth Congress, first session on the nature of radioactive fallout and its effects on man May 27, 28, 29, and June 3, 1957.

  • United States. Congress. Joint Committee on Atomic Energy.
Date:
1957-1958
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The nature of radioactive fallout and its effects on man : Hearings before the Special Subcommittee on Radiation of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, Congress of the United States, Eighty-fifth Congress, first session on the nature of radioactive fallout and its effects on man May 27, 28, 29, and June 3, 1957. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1029/1050 (page 991)
    TaBLe 4.—Distribution of neoplasia according to amount of radiation? Under 200 r. | Over 200r. Unknown DSRNA OAc ne SE ELE le i embon ne cnmnersence= 604 804 313 Cases Or IOGhGUlids skeen sap clean e menemenete re cesen ene e enone 2 5 (71) Other cancers__-...-.+--= ee eee eee EE of tg ides bsed Rae 0 4 0 BE Tee DUI GUL (agate Re, Bt ey a i 0 6 0 AGHIOS, OF TTYTON 2a aad pine Shgige poem nese =nnc eee enn e nn s- ) 0 6 3 1 From study by Simpson, Hempelmann, and Fuller on 1,722 children treated with X-rays for thymic enlargement from 1926 to 1951, The last study that I would like to mention is a so-called retrospective study of the history of previous X-ray exposure of 547 British children who died before the age of 10 from leukemia and other forms of cancer. The controls in this study consisted of the best friend of the child at the time of his death. Informa- tion was obtained from the parents as to exposure of the mother as well as the child and table 5 shows the information so obtained. I will mention the only category in which a significant difference was found in the history of X-ray exposure of the two groups of children. This category involved X-ray examina- tion of the abdomen of the child’s mother during pregnancy and this is seen in the first row of figures. You can see that whereas only 24 mothers of the control children had this form of examination, 42 or almost twice as many mothers with children with leukemia were examined in this way. This is 42 out of 269. A comparable difference also hold the exposure of the mothers of children with other forms of cancer and of the control children. There were 21 such examina- tions in the controls and 48 in the mothers of children with cancer. Now if you assume a cause-and-effect relationship here, you can see that all cases of childhood leukemia in this series cannot be explained on the basis of X-ray exposure of the fetus. Only about 8 percent of the total cases had this type of X-ray exposure. I would like to point out here that the doses involved in this type of X-ray examination are small. The fetus received about 2 roentgens per X-ray film and usually 4 to 6 films were taken per examination. Taste 5.—Lancet, Sept. 1, 1956: Past histories* of X-ray examinations and antibiotics in 547 children with malignant disease and 547 controls matched for age, sex, and locality Other All Number of mothers and children X-rayed Leukemia | malignant | malignant diseases diseases 269 | 269 | 278 | 278 | 547 | 547 Period Type of exposure cases | con- | cases | con- | cases | con- trols trols trols CMP SD TRE tales, Ae SA ee ER aa, Diagnostic: Apdonmien. oct esce 42 24 43 21 85 45 Oiinare pecs, Loft ee 25 23 33 32 58 55 Before conception of survey child__| Therapeutice_.-_.-...........|--..--|------|------ i IY be eae 1 iagnostic ADdomena os... 2 ok eae 17 24 28 30 45 54 Oli aoe Sie ae aes See Ee 103 88 108 119 211 207 Postnatal (children only) ---.----.- SEMGTADCUtIES go ccoe cose eee Nl ee a Pop Seca Oi) see SIISOMSUCL ods waa eee 45 49 46 50 91 99 BhOe bons see oe 55 52 40 46 95 98 BIEPT TORT OLATLOLIGTS 22: 9s eto cCk a sone teenie mans aaseee 140 | 1380] 160] 154] 300 284 Potapmrmiper OF Churn 2. a ee bank} ae wee cneee neces --aaos 89 91 75 84 164 175 SL ALBeE Molen OF Child, 5 -TAaVOds 2.52 see bee an en cehwadascesnsees 179 | 172} 194] 198] 373 370 Postnatal medication (children): . “ORM vihlohe Oakey eee. “oe ) I so oe oS a 51 45 42 42 93 87 Oc eS Se Ss SELES“ eo Smee, Sade es 2 | ee 68 52 50 58 118 110 11, e., before the onset of the fatal illness in the affected child or equivalent period in the control child. 2 Since a mother or child may appear in more than 1 X-ray category, the totals in this category are less than the sum of totals in the 3 preceding ones,