Of interest among the twelfth annual medical survey observations was
t!heabsence of thyroid abnormalities in the 40 Utirik children examined who
were of the same ages as the high-incidence group of exposed children on
Rongelap.
The Utirik children had received considerably less radiation
exposure.
Following the detonation of a thermonuclear device on March 1, 1954,
during atmospheric tests in the Pacific Proving Grounds, an unpredicted
shift in winds caused deposition of significant amounts of fallout on four
inhabited atolls east of Bikini.
and Utirik Atolls.
These were Rongelap, Ailinginae, Rongerik
Rongelap received the largest radiation exposure.
Eighty-two people of Rongelap Atoll were accidentally exposed to fallout
radiation where the average whole body exposure was approximately 175 roentgens.
Additional amounts of radiation resulted from absorption of radioiodine in the
thyroid glands.
Since that time the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and the
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands have sponsored annual medical surveys
of the exposed people.
The surveys are carried out by a Brookhaven National
Laboratory team, headed by Dr. Robert A. Conard from the Laboratory’s Medical
Research Center.
Immediately after the 1954 exposure the people were evacuated to Kwajalein
Atoll for treatment and were subsequently on Majuro Atoll until 1957 when they
were recurncd to RonCelap.
On their retu,rnto their home atoll the United
States provided ~hem with a new village and other facilities and services
to assist their re-est,?blishmcnt. The current population of Rongelap is
about 229 persons.
Last yenr Con~ress appropriated $950,000 as “compassionate
relief$ipayment to the exposed population.
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