UNITED STATES . ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION , WASHINGTON, D.C. wk MAY 1 2 1967 bd . a , ichpgpeM per whi ( aePad we a ' : tae Pos A oF AOR287 eA. on a i Mr. John T. Conway ‘ J . f prs! A bn . 20545 at ee Executive Director Joint Committee on Atomic Energy Congress of the United States Dear Mr. Conway: The following represents the most recent information on the occurrence of thyroid nodules among the people of Rongelap Island who were exposed to fallout on March 1, 1954. Dr. Robert A. Conard of the Medical Department of the Brookhaven National Laboratory has returned from the Marshall Islands where he and his team conducted the latest of the continuing series of medical examinations of these people. Our last letter on this subject, dated May 12, 1966, reported a cumulative total of 16 Marshallese had been found to have thyroid nodules. Dr. C. L. Dunham also provided the Joint Committee additional comments regarding this problem at the time of the FY 1968 Authorization Hearings. The recent survey disclosed one new case with a thyroid nodule. ) This additional case was in a 17-year old boy who had been away on an outlying atoll and, consequently, had not been examined for several years. This brings to 17 the number of diagnosed cases of nodular thyroids among the 69 survivors of the original exposed group. During the latter part of May 1966, five patients were brought from Rongelap to the Brookhaven Medical Department. After thorough evaluation they were transferred to the New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston for subtotal thyroidectomies. All did well and were returned in June 1966 to Rongelap. At this time, 11 of the 17 individuals with thyroid nodules have been treated surgically. These 11, nine children and two adults, SCAB 23068