Leukemia in Offspring of Atomic Bomb Survivors

In a survey having a 90 percent chance of detecting a quadrupling of risk, no significant increase in leukemia has been observed in the offspring of persons exposed to atomic bomb radiation in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In the children with leukemia who were born to previously irradiated parents, there was no unusual finding in regard to the interval from parental exposure to onset, age at onset, or type of leukemia.

Failure to demonstrate a radiation effect does not mean that there is no such effect. It merely means that within the experience thus far open to observation, no effect is to be seen. There now is sufficient experience to justify a long period of observation of the F₁ and subsequent generations for a possible increase of leukemia.