continued from page 32
Returning to the 1957 edition of The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, we further read:
"11.103 In the first place, radiation exposure of various organs and tissues from internal sources is continuous, subject only to depletion of the quantity of active material in the body as a result of physical (radioactive decay) and biological (elimination) processes. Further, the body tissues in which injury may occur are nearer the source of radiation and not shielded from it by intervening materials. This is of particular importance with alpha and beta particles which cannot reach sensitive regions, except the outer layers of the skin, if originating outside the body. But if the sources, e.g. plutonium (alpha particle emitter) or fission products (beta particle emitters) are internal, the particles can dissipate their entire energy within a small, possibly sensitive, volume of body tissue, thus causing considerable damage. (emphasis added)"11.104. The situation just described is sometimes aggravated by the fact that certain chemical elements tend to concentrate in specific cells or tissues, some of which are highly sensitive to nuclear radiation. The fate of a given radioisotope which has entered the blood stream will depend upon its chemical nature. Radioisotopes of an element which is a normal constituent of the body will follow the same metabolic processes as the naturally occurring, inactive (stable) isotopes of the same element. This is the case, [or example, with iodine which tends to concentrate in the thyroid gland."
It logically follows that a particle entering the blood stream can be carried to any part of the body and become lodged in any area at which point cellular destruction (cancer) will commence. Thus, it is possible to have cancer of the foot which is not normally associated as being radiogenic in nature. The 1957 edition continues:
" 11. 105. An element not usually found in Ihe body, except perhaps in minute traces, will behave like one with similar chemical properties that is normally present. Thus, among the fission products, strontium and barium, which are similar chemically to calcium, are
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