medicines are helpful in treating infections that sometimes follow
excessive exposure to radiation (which weakens the body's ability to
fight infections).

Almost all of the radiation that people would absorb from fallout
particles would come from particles _outside_ their own bodies. Only
simple precautions would be necessary to avoid swallowing the particles,
and because of their size (like grains of sand) it would be practically
impossible to inhale them.

People exposed to fallout radiation do _not_ become radioactive and
thereby dangerous to other people. Radiation sickness is not contagious
or infectious, and one person cannot "catch it" from another person.


PROTECTION IS POSSIBLE

People can protect themselves against fallout radiation, and have a good
chance of surviving it, by staying inside a fallout shelter. In most
cases, the fallout radiation level outside the shelter would decrease
rapidly enough to permit people to leave the shelter within a few days.

Even in communities that received heavy accumulations of fallout
particles, people soon might be able to leave shelter for a few minutes
or a few hours at a time in order to perform emergency tasks. In most
places, it is unlikely that full-time shelter occupancy would be
required for more than a week or two.


MANY KINDS OF FALLOUT SHELTERS