'black rain' fell over wider area after Nagasaki atomic bombing, Data suggests - 21st Nov 2011

'black rain' fell over wider area after Nagasaki atomic bombing, Data suggests - 21st Nov 2011

Black rain containing radioactive materials from the World War II atomic bombing of Nagasaki may have fallen not only in the city's Nishiyama district, but over a much wider area, documents obtained by the Nagasaki Doctor and Dentist Association have suggested.

The association obtained documents on fallout from the bombing from the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, which has offices in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and analyzed the responses of about 800 people in Nagasaki who said they had encountered black rain.

The responses were among those gathered in a survey on about 120,000 people by the foundation's predecessor, the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, starting in the 1950s.

One question in the survey (in English) was: "Was person caught in Fallout Rain?" and positive responses were followed by the question, "Where?" Of the people who said they encountered fallout rain, 800 were from Nagasaki. Read More