indicating that their exposure must h ave There however, and that relates to the radiation dose disease from exposure, been considerably less than the people of Rongelaw Island. is one exception, to the children's thyroid which I shall address later in this> letter. Following the return to the island, it was decided that cone inued medical examinations of the exposed peeple of Utirik were to be done. Such examinations were conducted at regular intervais to assure that they had not been harmed. Examinations were dene in 1957, 1959, 1963, 1966, 1969, 1972 and 1975. uring the wast six years, thyroid examinations were done and sick calls wer 2 held every year in addition to completa physical examinations Also, for the past several years, American doctors have visi fed Utirik every three months. we In addition to examining the people whe have been exposed to radiation, the doctors selected a contro] group so that they could compare the health of exposed and non~exposed people. This control group consists of unexposed people from Rongelap and is cons idered quite adequate for comparison with che exposed people of bot i Rongelap and Utirik. The slight genetic differance betueen the two populations was not considered s sufficient reason to se lect a separate control group for Utirik. One of your questions concerned the fact that rf the children co r the exposed islanders (who were vot thenselves expand) bave not been included in the regular examinations. Large groups of children of exposed parents have been studied eleewhere. None of Cher 32 Vence, studies revealed any radiation-caused illness or defects. it was expected that the health of this group of chiidren of _., Utirik would not be affected. Of course, all. children Are &menined| "and treated as needed: at sick calls¥whenever the’ doctors vis te rT, Weivik. . see . hoa, . we a .. As I said earlier inthis: le eter, maay facts about radiation were not known back in 1954 bet the best avaliahic medical 4 udement ad BS DL VEtae , sae ‘was-used in: decisions affecting:-the people. of Urseaks? “Study ing the sane problems:snow and with the knovledge we have booay, Le : al aspeatee tint thes duetersau “hat Chee send mol wes fi kta degre J OL exposureof the thyroid: duc to fatlone. | Tis wmne bepestely wv SENG. ofthe children. because their: thy rod, is, REC, smaller ft.