Dr. Henry I. Kohn
Page 2
April 29, 1988

In addition to wanting our efforts on the DOE book accurately represented, we
want the Livermore people to receive the credit due them for their excellent
The following
work, confirmed,by your verification of their dose estimates.
comments bear on these points.
Page 18, para. 2, line 4 - DOE-1982 includes no conclusions about Rongelap’s
The report only used dose estimates from the Livermore report
being safe.
(your reference Robison 1982b) and gave estimates of possible future health
Conclusions were left to the reader, since we did not feel
effects.
qualified to make any judgment about what the Marshallese should consider
The authors of DOE-1982 would prefer that you merely make
safe or unsafe.
the statement, “The information -irrthe 1982 book was not accepted by the
Rongelap people,” which is more accurate.
Page 23, para. 2, line 5 - “failed to consider” seems unfair criticism of
the authors of DOE-1982 and of the Livermore report. Since we used invivo counting data in the Bikini book, it’s obvious we would have used
it in the 1982 bookhad
the data for people living on all the northern
Giving equal treatment to all the atolls and
atolls been accessible.
usina a common aDDroach that allowed com~arisons Precluded usinq in-vivo
co~n~ing data for-only one. Had we been” asked to-prepare a boo~
specifically for Rongelap, using availab- e in-vivo counting data would
likey have been considered.
Page 28, para. 1 - This implies, incorrectly, that the authors of DOE’S-1982
calculated the dose values. The origina- source is your reference,
Robison 1982b, the authors of which made assumptions about the diet
(which seemed reasonable at the time).
Page 3.4, para. 2, line 3 - As-noted above, DOE-1982 did not choose the BNL
Community B diet.
It was chosen-by the authors of Robison 1982b.
Page 42, para. 3, line 1 - DOE-1982 used a cesium dose from Robison 1982b
that overstated the dose compared to whole body counting.
(Your statement
DOE people were clear in not
reads like a criticism of the Livermore work.
wanting under-estimates.
A factor of 3 over-estimate was certainly
preferable to a factor of3 under-estimate).
You might want to discuss.this
and the previous item with Bill Robison.
Page 42, last para. - This again implies, incorrectly, that the authors of
DOE-1982 made the calculations that you have confirmed.
The credit
rightfully goes to Bill Robison and his colleagues.

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