BAKAL AND BAKAL 401678 ‘ ree ATTORNEYS AT LAW S408 SEPULVEDA BOULEVARD CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA 90230 TELEPHONE (213) 390-7840 RONALD G. BAKAL JUDY ALTAGEN BAKAL Noverber 15, 1976 senator Alan Cranston 11000 Wilshire Bivd. Los Angeles, Ca. 90024 Re: Our Client: BEST COPY AVAILABLE People of Utirik Atoll, Marshall Islands Negligence - March 1, 1954 Dear Sir: This office has been retained by the People of Utirik Atoll, ' Marshall Islands, United Nations Trusteeship, to seek compensation on their behalf for damages they have suffered as a result of the negligence of the UnitedStates Government in the detonation of a nuclear device on March 1, 1954. For the last 22 years our clients have suffered from the effects of their exposure to radiation with only token compensation and periodic medical treatment which can only be described as experimentation. Along with the high degree of thyroid tumors, including malignancy, among the exposed population, evidence has been detected that second generation children are being genetically affiicted. Besides the direct physical damage, the entire polulation of the atoll suffers from the emotional and psychological effects of the expectation of continuing health problems. Your agency should be well aware of the enviormnental impact the radiation has had upon the flora and fauna of Utirik Atoll. Now that the former residents of Bikini Atoll have been compensated for their property losses by Congressional action, it is time that the people of Utirik Atoll shall be compensated for the loss of life, continuing diseases, threat of disease, altered environment and the humiliation of being treated as human guinea pigs. There are still 40 persons alive in the exposed group living on the Atoll. This office now demands that each and every member of that group be compensated in the swn of One Million Dollars ($1,000,000. 00) for physical and psychological injury. Further demand is made on behalf of all other inhabitants of the Atoll in the sum of Sixty Million Dollars ($60,000,000. °°) for psychological, emotional and enviormental damages.