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-hibakusha suffered severe forms of PTSD
-2nd and 3rd generation hibakusha were discriminated against, and lived in constant fear of developing health issues possibly passed down from their parents. -
-August 6th, 1945, the first uranium-based nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. 60,000-80,000 people died instantly. -
-Just a few days later, the second, plutonium-based nuclear bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. -
-Within the first few months after the bombings, 90,000 and 166,000 people died in Hiroshima
-another 60,000 to 80,000 died in Nagasaki.
-Totals comprised of the immediate blast as well as acute radiation sickness, which included nausea and vomiting. -
-Those immediately exposed to the gamma radiation from the blasts started experiencing petechiae (bleeding into the skin), other hemorrhagic manifestations, oropharyngeal lesions (inflammation of the mouth and throat), vomiting, diarrhea, and fever. -
-Those experiencing radiation sickness started to develop fevers, rapid emaciation and death by day 10, post blast. -
-By day 11, significant epilation (lose of hair) had started with most of those exposed, that were still alive. -
-For almost a week, there seemed to be little change in health status for those still living.
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-By day 18 post blast, people began to develop moderate loss of appetite and general malaise. -
-People began to develop severe inflammation and malaise of the mouth and throat, as well as mild fever, sore throat, pallor, diarrhea, petechiae and emaciation.
-These developments became more prominent in the week to follow. -
-By about the 28th day post blast, people start to exhibit petechiae, diarrhea and nose bleeds.
-People began recovery unless complicated by previous poor health or super-imposed injuries or infection. -
By 31 days post explosion, the last of those who seemed to be immediately effected by the blasts either recovered or died. -
-Japan started to recover, but about 5-6 years after the bombings, an increase in leukemia diagnoses started to rapidly increase among the bombing survivors, also known as "hibakusha".
-Survivors were studied by and at the Japanese Red Cross Nagasaki Genbaku Hospital -
-Children under 10 years who were exposed to atomic radiation in 1945 were later shown to have a type of leukemia that normally occurs in elderly people at a rate 4 times that of the general population.
-Of the 119,169 who were directly exposed at the time of the atomic bombings, 7,351 were unborn children at the time of the exposure of their parents. -
-86,572 subjects, of which about 60% have dose estimates of at least 0.005 Sv
-During 1950-1990 there have been 3086 and 4741 cancer deaths for the less than and greater than 0.005 Sv groups, respectively.
-It is estimated that there have been approximately 420 excess cancer deaths during 1950-1990, of which about 85 were due to leukemia. -
-About 10-15 years after the bombing, those who developed and died from radiation caused leukemia diminished.
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-For cancers other than leukemia (solid cancers), about 25% of the excess deaths in 1950-1990 occurred during the last 5 years; for those exposed as children it is nearly 50%.
-For leukemia only about 3% of the excess deaths in 1950-1990 occurred in the last 5 years. Whereas most of the excess for leukemia occurred in the first 15 years after exposure, for solid cancers the pattern of excess risk is apparently more like a life-long elevation of the natural age-specific cancer risk. -
-56% of atomic bomb survivor deaths in the year ending March 2014 were attributed to cancers of, primarily, lung cancer (38%), liver cancer (12%) and stomach cancer (9%).
-Cancers of the colon, lymph system, gall bladder and pancreas together accounted for 24% of cancer deaths by survivors. -
-Of the atomic bomb survivor deaths that occurred in the Hiroshima through March 2014, nearly two-thirds (63%) were attributed to malignant tumors (cancer) of which the primary types were lung cancer (20%), stomach cancer (18%), liver cancer (14%), leukemia (8%), intestinal cancer (7%) and malignant lymphoma (6%). -
-Children born to hibakusha in the years following their parents' direct exposure, includes some 200,000 people approaching the cancer-prone age (50-60).
-If the radiation exposure damaged the genes of hibakusha, as it has done in animal, hereditary transmission of radiation effects is another long-term concern requiring years of treatment.
-A large-scale epidemiological study of this population is currently underway.