B. Genetic Effects 1. Early Genetic Surveys and Mortality Study

Review of Thirty Years Study of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors II. BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS

Abstract

In 1948-1953 a large scale field survey was conducted to investigate the possible genetic effects of A-bomb radiation on over 70, 000 pregnancy terminations in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The indices of possible genetic effect including sex ratio, birth weight, frequency of malformation, stillbirth, neonatal death, deaths within 9 months and anthropometric measurements at 9 months of age for these children were investigated in relation to their parent's exposure status to the A-bomb. There were no detectable genetic effects in this sample, except for a slight change in sex ratio which was in the direction to be expected if exposure had induced sex-linked lethal mutations. However, continued study of the sex ratio, based upon birth certificates in Hiroshima and Nagasaki for 1954-1962, did not confirm the earlier trend.
Mortality in these children of A-bomb survivors is being followed using a cohort of 54, 000 subjects. No clearly significant effect of parental exposure on survival of the children has been demonstrated up to 1972 (age 17 on the average). On the basis of the regression data, the minimal genetic doubling dose of this type of radiation for mutations resulting in death is estimated at 46 rem for the father and 125 rem for the mother.