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 after the first minute and a half there is actually little or nothing to fear from those produced by high-level bursts. While most of the radioactive materials swept up into the sky eventually fall back to earth, they are so widely and so thinly spread that they are very unlikely to offer any real dangers to humans. Thousands of bombs would have to be set off in the air before serious ground contamination would be found over really large areas. There was no ground-level pollution of any importance following either of the two Japanese atomic bombings.

It was said earlier that 15 percent of the Japanese A-bomb deaths or injuries were caused by radioactivity. But not one of them was caused by the lingering kind. Explosive radioactivity caused them all.

Bursts on or near the ground usually will leave a limited area of rather heavy and often dangerous pollution near the explosion point. In such cases, the possibility of harm from radioactivity falling out of the clouds is greater than in high-level explosions. But even so, a person could escape contamination by simply taking refuge inside a house or even by getting inside a car and rolling up the windows. And even if some of the wastes fell on him, he would lessen his chances of injury if he promptly shed his clothes and took a bath or shower. 22