Effects of Overpressures in Group Shelters on Animals and Dummies

S>Relative biological hazards of blast were studied in two types of communal air-raid shelters during Shots 1 and 8. Dogs, restrained within the shelters during detonation, were studied pathologically and clinically for blast injuries. Two anthropometric dummies were test objects for displacement studies utilizing high-speed photography. Physical data included pressure vs time and air-drag determinations. During Shot 1, animals sustained marked blast damages (hemorrhages in lungs and abdominal organs), three dogs were ataxic. and the dummies were rather violently displaced. In Shot 8, however, no significant injuries were found in the animals, and the dummies were minimally displaced. Analysis of the physical data indicated that blast injuries and violent displacements may occur at much lower static overpressures than previously assumed from conventional explosion data. Furthermore, biological damage appeared to be related to the rate of rise of the overpressure and air drag, as well as the maximum overpressure values. (auth

Operation Plumbbob

Fourteen dogs located on the lee side of planted gravel, of a concrete- block wall, and of glass mounted in the open and in houses were exposed to the environmental variations associated with full-scale nuclear detonations. Aluminum foil was used to protect the animals from thermal effects. The missile environment was monitored through the use of quantitutive missile-trapping techniques. Pressure-time variations in the environment were also recorded. Biologic damage from overpressure and missiles was determined, and the associations between physical envtronmental factors and biologic response were noted and analyzed. The feasibility of utilizing ninssile data, along with other available information from the literature, as a means of quantitutively assesing biologic hazard was estublished by the close correspondence between observed and predicted dangerous wounds. This test provided full-scale validation of procedures and experimsnts worked out chiefly in the laboratory. (auth