+ . se Ne 7ws RUTGERS THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEV JERSEY , Maren 20, 4O12753 1979 LIVINGSTON COLLEGE» GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ANTHROPOLOGY NEW BRUNSWICK « NEW JERSEY 08903 + 201/932-2593 Dr. Robert A. Tonard Medical Building Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, New York 11973 Dear Dr. Conard, I have been asked to chair a symposium for the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Francisco during January of 1980, and I would like to cordially extend an invitation for you to participate in that symposium. The title of the symposium is "Ethno-Epvidemiology: The Marshall Islanders Twenty-Five Years After Exposure to Radiation, and since you have personally conducted the radiological surveys in the Marshalls, it seems only approvriate that you attend the symposium. The purpose of the symposium will be to examine the short and long-term effects of radioactive fallout (especially in relation to the radioiodines) on the Marshallese, and in particular, the recent discovery of biochemical hypothyroidism without clinical evidence of the disease in the Rongelap population (as indicated in your "Twenty-Two Year Report”). The symposium Will also focus on the numerous problems you have encountered Over the years concerning data collection in this unique and isolated population, as well as tne problems associated with interpretation of the Marshalls data. Additionally, the panel will address the ways in wnich the fallout has affected the ecology and the socio-cultural domains of the Islanders. In addition to yourself, I have invited other experts in the field of radiation science to participate in the symposium, and they include: Dr. Frank von Hippel, a physicist from the Department of Environmental Sciences at Princeton University; Dr. Helen Caldicott, a pediatrician from Soston Children's Hospital wno-specializes in nuclear radiation; Dr. John Sofman, a chemist at the UC Lawrence Radiation Laboratory who specializes in nuclear radiation; and Dr. Konrad Kotrady from the University of Utah Medical School who has firsthand experience with the Marshallese. I have also invited an anthropologist--Dr. Robert Kiste from the University of Hawaii-~who specializes in the >