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Chromosome aberrations in Japanese fishermen exposed to fallout radiation 420–1200 km distant from the nuclear explosion test site at Bikini Atoll: report 60 years after the incident

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Abstract

During the period from March to May, 1954, the USA conducted six nuclear weapon tests at the “Bravo” detonation sites at the Bikini and Enewetak Atolls, Marshall Islands. At that time, the crew of tuna fishing boats and cargo ships that were operating approximately 150–1200 km away from the test sites were exposed to radioactive fallout. The crew of the fishing boats and those on cargo ships except the “5th Fukuryu-maru” did not undergo any health examinations at the time of the incident. In the present study, chromosome aberrations in peripheral blood lymphocytes were examined in detail by the G-banding method in 17 crew members from 8 fishing boats and 2 from one cargo ship, 60 years after the tests. None of the subjects examined had suffered from cancer. The percentages of both stable-type aberrations such as translocation, inversion and deletion, and unstable-type aberrations such as dicentric and centric ring in the study group were significantly higher (1.4- and 2.3-fold, respectively) than those in nine age-matched controls. In the exposed and control groups, the percentages of stable-type aberrations were 3.35 % and 2.45 %, respectively, and the numbers of dicentric and centric ring chromosomes per 100 cells were 0.35 and 0.15, respectively. Small clones were observed in three members of the exposed group. These results suggest that the crews were exposed to slightly higher levels of fallout than had hitherto been assumed.

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Acknowledgments

We kindly thank Medical Drs. Uchida Y, Sanuma K and Kikima H for clinical help and clinical information, Messrs. Yamashita M, Ishihama R and Hanai T for information on the ships and crew members and Emeritus Prof. MS Sasaki, Kyoto University for information on the Qdr biodosimetry method.

Funding

This study was funded by JSPS KAKENHI, Grant-in Aid for Scientific Research (A) (Grant number 26257501).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute for Radiation Biology and Medicine, Hiroshima University, Kasumi 1-2-3, Minami-ku, Hiroshima City, Hiroshima, 734-8551, Japan

    Kimio Tanaka, Megu Ohtaki & Masaharu Hoshi

  2. Institute for Environmental Sciences, Takahoko, Rokkasho, Kakimita, Aomori, 039-3213, Japan

    Kimio Tanaka

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  1. Kimio Tanaka
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  2. Megu Ohtaki
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  3. Masaharu Hoshi
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Correspondence to Kimio Tanaka.

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Author K. T. declares that he has no conflict of interest. Author M. O. declares that he has no conflict of interest. Author M. H. declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Ethical standards

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This study does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Tanaka, K., Ohtaki, M. & Hoshi, M. Chromosome aberrations in Japanese fishermen exposed to fallout radiation 420–1200 km distant from the nuclear explosion test site at Bikini Atoll: report 60 years after the incident. Radiat Environ Biophys 55, 329–337 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00411-016-0648-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00411-016-0648-3

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