BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY ASSOCIATED UNIVERSITIES, INC.. UPTON, Lui. N.Y. 11973 MEDICAL DEPASTMENT TeLernone: (516) 345- 3577 November 21, 1975 QCM?ae Dr. James L. Livérman Assistant Administrator for Environmental Safety . Energy Research and Development Administration Washington, D.C. 20545 Dear Jim: The purpose of this letter is to acquaint you with a change in our conclusion regarding radiation etiology of thyroid cancer in the Marshallese population of Utirik who had been exposed to low doses of radiation from fallovt. In 1969 one of the Utirik women had a ‘thyroid tumor removed which was malignant. [t was believed that this one case could well have been a natural occurrence and since no nodules had been detected in the Utirik children and only a norm#l incidence of benign nodules had developed in the adults £ had advised the Congress of Micronesia, in response te questions submittcd, that it was unlikely that any of the thyroid abnormalities noted in the Utirik population (158 people) were related to radiation exposure. As you know the subject of additional compensation for the exposed Marshallese is about to come up before our Congress. The Department of Interior is handling this matter. Of course the Congress of Micronesia is pushing for passage of such a bill and the questions asked me concerning various aspects of our medical findings were related to this. Last month another thyroid tumor was removed from a 25 year old female exposed on Utirik at 4 years of ape, the firstmor to he detected in the younger ave group of that population. The diagnosis on this tumor has been controversial among nine outstanding thyroid pathologists ~. three favoring a diagnosis of cancer, two atypical benign adenoma and four aveundecic.d but willing to call it a premalignant lesion or cancerin-situ. We have decided to call it cancer-in-situ and for statistical purposes classify it as cancer. In order to obtain advice on chances that these two cancers in the Utirik group were related to their radiation exposure I visited Drs. Brian MacMahon and George B. Hutchison, at the School of Public Health at Harvard Medical School for review of the Marshallese data. Both of these men are experts in population statistics. They concluded that the "occurrence of 2 cases by chance is extremely unlikely". A summary of their conclusions is attached, reeositony DOE -FoRRESTITT couection (WIHAK EY £1 LES INFORMATION OPERATOR (M16) 345-223 10 | 27201 BOX Ne. 2,9 cotoer FAQ S oy @ MARSHMALLESE (SLMS Nawig7?h- ocr 27 (477 F