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Delayed Effects of Radiation

Delayed effects of radiation were caused by the complicated involvement of 3 factors; namely, burns due to thermal radiation and fire, injuries due to the blast, and radiation effects

(I) Acute sickness

The effect of radiation had a synergistic action with the burns due to thermal radiation and fire and the injuries due to the blast and generally aggravated the condition of the diseases of those exposed.
Delaved effects of radiation are divided into acute sickness and long-term
illness according to the time of their development.Acute sickness is a symptom that devel-oped in the period from the time of the explosion to the end of December the same year, and rnost of the people are said to have recovered from the symptoms 5 months after the explosion. They are:
digestive symptoms (nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea); nerve symptoms (headache, delirious utterance, and insomnia); adynamic symptoms
Effetti della radioattivitą su un bambino.GIF (31315 byte)
(epilation, weakness, and malaise); bleeding symptoms (hematemesis, bloody discharge from the bowels, hematuria, nosebleed, gingival bleeding, genital bleeding, and subcuta-neous bleeding); inflammation symptoms (fever, pharyngalgia, stomatitis, and dermatitis); blood symptoms (leukocytopenia and erythrocytopenia); genital organ symptoms (aspermia and menstrual abnormalities). A girl in hair epliation stage. (2 km from the hypocenter photographed by Shunkichi Kikuchi.)

Of the total deaths of 140,000 in the period of acute sickness, approximately 20% were from injuries due to the blast, approximately 60%, from burns due to thermal rays and fire, and the remaining 20%, due to radiation disturbances.

Effetti della radioattivitą su una donna.GIF (94289 byte) (2) Long-term illness
Most of the people who did not die of acute sickness superficially ap-peared to be in good health at the end of December of the year of the bomb. However, medical effects due to the atomic bomb did not end.
Burns due to the atomic bomb, healing once, formed keloids in 1 ~ months with the protuberance of their scars. Keloid incidence shows a peak in the period of 1946-47. Ophthal-mological disorders such as traumatic cataracts, and blood dyscarasias such as leukemia appeared to be seen around 1947. Leukemia incidence,especially, shows a peak in the period of 1950-60. Incidence of malignant tumors such as thyroid cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, and salivary gland tumor general~ increased from around 1960 after the peak of leukemia inci-dence, and is still observed.
Adding to these, nerve problems such as easy fatigability, dizziness, and insomnia, aging, and sickness due to in utero exposure have been observed. As to genetic effects of radiation, no definite evidence has been obtained. This is a problem that requires further study and research.
Old keloids were operated on, but scar due to extraction of stiches forrned new keloids. This phenomenon has not re-ceived any medical explanation. Photo-graphed by Masaru Kuroishi.