Atomic veterans' grandchildren suffer

SAN ANTONIO American servicemen unwittingly used as guinea pigs in atomic bomb testing have bequeathed their grandchildren an unwanted legacy mental retardation, a researcher says.

A survey of more than 200 veterans of the tests or postwar occupation of Hiroshima or Nagasaki showed 31 percent had grandchildren who suffer from mental retardation, said Rudy Florentine, a researcher for the National Association of Atomic Veterans.

The 5,000-member organization held its annual convention in San Antonio.

The study ''showed more females were affected than males (overall),'' said Florentine, who served aboard a Navy ship in Japanese waters after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II.

Nearly 200,000 U.S. military personnel participated in the post-bomb occupation of those two cities, according to newspaper reports.

Florentine has three children two of whom were affected physically by his exposure to radiation and fallout in the Orient according to Oscar Rosen, national commander of the 15-year-old organization.

Florentine's research also show 23 percent of the veterans' grandchildren suffer from live birth genetic defects, 13 percent from bone and skull abnormalities or disorders and 31 percent from a combination of respiratory, muscular, dental, skin and stomach disorders.

''Most of the grandchildren had more than one defect,'' Florentine said.

Meanwhile, the organization completed a health survey of the children of more than 600 atomic veterans. It found:

*28 percent had a combination of respiratory, muscular, dental, skin and stomach maladies.

*26 percent had cancers and tumors.

*26 percent had live birth genetic defects.

*20 percent had bone and skull abnormalities or disorders.

*19 percent had mental retardation.