™ , = a ed Ye eee Dietah eas 2S 0 se az — SiSRS ey eg ; Cf a > oe as i a , oll Nree teen we _ * A rhs be rT eae “i . .. — eae, ge aeneEE ame fae -. : earer ih:ba| ee ~ Seda o we ee tbe Ms southem islands: but no funds have The Enewetak people have an intense desire to return home, after 33 years on tiny Ujelang Atoll. And on the basis of this information, the Enjebi people voted to return to their island in the north. But the objectivity of the study conducted by Bender and Brill, whose base is the government-funded Brookhaven National Laboratory, has been questioned. Dr. Rosalie Bertell, a consultant to the Division of Standard Setting for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said of the Study: erm islands. This has caused prob- the nght to knowthat a value judg- already moved back to the southern islands. which the Agency calls ‘relatively uncontaminated." Meanwhile. the Department of Energy says the atoll’s northern islands—where the majority of the 43 nuclear tests occurred—should be off limits for at least 30 years, since radiation levels are still high there. Because of the Department ruling. millions of dollars have been spent on building houses and community facilities and on replanting thousands of coconut trees in the been used to rehabilitate the northlems among the Enewetak people as, ‘The population of Enewetak has ment has been made for them, traditionally. they are divided into namely that induction of cancer is two distinct groups: the Dri-Enjebi in their on/y concern. They may, if inthe northern and Dri-Enewetak in formed about hypothyroidism, ap- the south. Accustomed to their own chiefs and land, the Dri-Enjebi are reluctant to live on another chief's land. In September 1979, the radiologi- cal information about Enewetak was presented by the Departmentof En- ergy to the people. Michael Bender and Bertrand Brill, two scientists hired by Micronesian Legal Services then testified that their study showed all the islands to be safe for habitation, including northern Enjebi Island. The chances of adverse effects were so smail, they had concluded, that “cancer mortality in the lifetime of the population is estimated to be less than a single case.”' They asSerted that the Department of Energy overstated the nsk: ‘"DOE tends tO exaggerate the problem,”’ said Micronesian Lega! Service Director Ted Mitchell.¢ lastic anemia, premature aging, benign tumors and other such dis- orders, make a different judgment. They ‘reduced’ the radiation dose of the inhabitants of Enjebi by av- eraging in the population less ex- posed. This is like telling one member of a family his or her nsk of lung canceris lowered if the other nonsmoking membersof the family are included and an ‘average’ msk given. It is a scientifically ndiculous approach to public health. Basing a resettlement decision affecting the lives of 500 people on the Bender and Brill inadequate health assessment would be extremely imprudent."’’ : re 3 - ”-£ 7 -ae wae a= Saleded ‘. ri Brookhaven researchers assess U.S. government data... . The history of the U.S. testing program was one of repeated mistakes and miscalculations.” In his view, ‘‘nongovernment radiation experts” should be included in all such sur- veys.® A May 1979 General Accounting Office report cautioned that ‘‘be- cause of uncertainty of the long term effects of exposureto low level radiation. it is possible that the people of Enewetak could receive doses in excess of current standards.” It also urged an independent assessment of Enewetak by ‘experts who have no direct connections with the nuclear testing program or the Enewetak cleanup project ... before resettle- ment of the people begins.”** This report was initially withheld from the Marshall Islands government for political reasons. Since deporting an independent team of Japanese scientists invited by Marshall Islands leaders to investigate the radiation problems in 1971, the United States has stead- fastly refused to allow independent monitoring of the Marshallese people and their environment. President Lyndon Johnson announced in 1968 that Bikint—site of 23 bomb tests—would be returned to its people. who had been living in exile since 1946. In 1969, the Atomic Energy Com- mission said: **(there is] virtually no said the problem is ‘‘the inherent radiation left on Bikini"’ and “the exposures to radiation of the Brkini people do not offer a significant threat to their health and safety.”'° A small-scale cleanup and re- having habilitation program was begun and December 1980 The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 25 Glen Alcalay, a former Peace Corps Volunteer in the Marshalls. conflict of interest in