Cytogenetic Findings 30 Years after Low Level Exposure to the Nagasaki Atom Bomb

Chromosome aberrations in the peripheral blood lymphocytes were studied in seventeen Australian former prisoners of war who had been exposed to about 50 rads whole body radiation thirty years previously at Nagasaki. Only three yielded individual discernible evidence of remaining radiation damage to the chromosomes of their lymphocytes. In comparing the cytogenetic findings in this exposed group with other Australians at Nagasaki who were not exposed, distinction was not possible between the groups using the criterion of dicentrics/cell. Howeve, distinction could be made on a hits/cell basis.