This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
In the New England Journal of Medicine for September 8, Hollingsworth, Chief of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Division, summarizes the radiation effects of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings.
Among the 25,000 survivors who were within 1,500 meters of the hypocenter of the explosions, 7,000 experienced acute radiation toxicity with epilation, purpura, or oropharyngeal ulceration, the proportion affected being very much higher in the comparatively few survivors within 1,000 meters of the explosion.
Late effects of the radiation exposure have been studied in particular detail. The fearsome genetic changes predicted in the offspring and succeeding generations of the survivors have thus far not materialized. In the infants who were born to survivors and who were examined at birth and at nine months of age, there was no significant increase in major congenital abnormalities as compared with a controlled group. The only positive genetic effect so far observed has been a