B. Future Research

Review of Thirty Years Study of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors III. FUTURE RESEARCH AND HEALTH SURVEILLANCE

Abstract

Much remains to be learned from continued monitoring of the medical experience of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bomb survivors. Many effects are so small, or have such long latent periods, that there is not even now a complete catalogue of effects visible in this large population. There is as yet no evidence of a mutagenic effect, but biochemical and cytogenetic approaches now offer powerful tools for a final effort to derive information that may set limits on the size of the doubling dose for mutations in man. The list of specific neoplasms induced by the whole-body exposure to the A-bomb radiation remains incomplete, and the quantitative dose-response aspects of established carcinogenic effects remains to be worked out in relation to time, host factors, linear energy transfer (LET) characteristics of radiation, and risk factors other than radiation. The dose-response estimates must be made, where possible, in terms of tissue dose. If there is to be any definitive test of the hypothesis of radiation accelerated aging in man, it will doubtless come from observations on the A-bomb survivors.
The experience of the A-bomb survivors can make no direct contribution to knowledge of dose rate, and is much too small to provide direct information in the region of low dose. Nevertheless, as better knowledge of mechanisms of radiation damage and repair accumulates from laboratory experimental programs, this unique human experience will be of increasing value to radiation biology.
Continued monitoring of the health and medical experience of the A-bomb survivors will depend on the voluntary cooperation of the subjects and their families, and on the interest of the physicians in the community. Present indications are that the research would gain from a closer association with medical care and health maintenance programs.