REUBEN MERLISS, M.D. AMEDD aL CMa CREATION 16S NOATH SOM VICENTE &.V0 BCOVERLY HIS CALIFORMIA O.PLO WATE Ameo CAN BOARD OF INTERNAL ziP MEDICINE CODE FEL Tw SCatt Aw ORC AN OFT LPATIONAL 657-€430 (AREA CODE 213) we DIC ML July 15, 1980 Gordon Stemple Attorney at Law 9720 Wilshire Boulevard 4th Floor Beverly Hills, California 90212 RE: Dear Mr. Marshall Islands Stemple: At your request I have prepared a summary of my pinions on my visit to the Marshall Islands. I was ecply impressed by the kindness of the people and by. heir gentleness and innate courtesy, and by the willings of the vice speaker and the president to spend time h us and listen to us. My medical background should be set out so that these opinions may be judged. I have practiced internal medicine for thirty-five years. I have been.accredited by the Atomic Energy Commission many years ago to use radioactive isotopes in medical practice for treatment of certain thyroid diseases, including hyperthyroidism, and in the diagnosis of thyroid diseeses. I think I was one of the first doctors to be so licensed for use of radio- _ active isotopes in their office in Los Angeles. There may have been ten or fifteen others of us at the same time. In preparation for this licensure I studied about six months at UCLA, taking courses in radioactive physics and radiation in general. I used radioisotopes for the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid disorders up until about five years ago, when space became crowded and the large scanner and the devotion of a rocm in my office was ASSOCIATION