The fact that in the Marshall Islands thyroid cancer is more prevalent in people exposed to lower than to higherlevels of radiation is not widely known in the United States. nearby Rongelap and Utink atolls, were severely contaminated with ash-like fallout. For many years people have debated whether or not the Marshallese were deliberately exposed. The official position 1s that upper level winds changed suddenly after the blast. depositing fallout on the inhabited islands. Admiral Lewis Strauss of the Atomic Energy Commission, at a press conference on his return from Bikini in 1954, said of Bravo '’. . . at no ume was the testing out of control.’ He added. “No test is made without a definite purpose and a careful determination that is directed to an end result of major importance....°?'* Nevertheless. within hours of their exposure (at Rongelap. 175 rems. and at Utirik. 14 rems) the people began to suffer from nausea and severe itching of the skin: skin burns and loss of hair occurred in the following weeks. Since then, 19 out of 22 children exposed on Rongelap have had surgery for removal of. thyroid nodules. In 1972 a youth, barely a year old at the time of his exposure in 1954, died of myelogenous leukemia. A 1977 report by Brookhaven States: “Recently about 50% of the exposed Rongelap people showed hypothyroidism without clinical evidence of thyroid disease, a finding that probably portends trouble ahead.""'9 **For twenty two years. the people fof Utinik] have heard Dr. Conard and other doctors tell them not to worry. that the dose of radiation received at the island was too lowto cause any harmful effects. However, it has become apparent that the theory was wrong... . There ts as much thyroid cancer at Utirik as at Rongelap.’ “2° A 1976 Brookhaven annual report confirmed the finding that thyroid 28 cancer is actually more prevalent in the people who received low level exposure than in the high level group?! A questionable decision by the Atomic Energy Commission allowed the Utirik people to return to their atoll within six months of the Bravo test in 1954 and the Rongelap people after three years. Little radiological cleanup was done oneither atoll, but both were declared safe despite **shight lingering radiation. **?? Some 20 years later, the Department of Energy has decided the is- lands were not safe. Shortly after the northern Marshalls radiological survey was finished. Department of Energy scientists went to Rongelap in early 1979 and told the people that the northern islands in their atoll, which for the past 20 years they have used for food gathering, were too radioactive to visit. Moreover, the Department of Energy survey shows that islands in Rongelap—only 125 miles from Bikini—have radiation levels at least equal to, and in some cases higher than, an island at Bikint. Since the 1954 Bravoincident, the United States has stated unequivocally that only the atolls of Bikini, Enewetak. Rongelap and Utink were contaminated during the weapons tests. But in 1978, the Department of Energy suddendly reversed itself and reported: ‘‘In addition to Enewetak. Bikini and Rongelap Atolls, there are eleven other atolls or single islands that received intermediate range fallout from one or more of the megaton range tests."°73 One ofthese atolls in the northern Marshalls ts Likiep. According to a careful report in the Micronesian Independent, June 6, 1980: “Out of 406 people wholive in Likiep. there are documented reports that list nine women who have given birth to babies with severe mental retardation, one woman who had three ‘strange’ still born babies. one ‘completely unrecognizable as human.’ Also reported among women on Likiep were ten other babies that were not normal, a quite high percentage of the population. "74 No medical program exists for the people from these islands, but the list of miscarriages, deformed babies. cancers, thyroid nodules and environmental problems from supposedly unexposed atolls is steadily growing. Because Brookhaven does not examine people from these other islands, the government has been able to deny that any health problems exist on the grounds that there are no data. Even on Utirik and Rongelap. Brookhaven has taken an extremely narrow view of the problems. according to Kotrady. In his 1977 cntique he said: “‘The original purpose of the program was to be as broad as possible to discover all possible effects... . Over the years, however, data from various sources and opinions of experts have assessed what long term effects should be found in the people. Thus the program seems to operate in a mode of looking for those effects predicted by experts. ... It tends to focus on specific areas, such as the thyroid and blood, wherethe scientists expect effects to occur, ”*?5 Much of the information concerning low level radiation in the Marshalls is relevant to the United States, in view of the uncertainty surrounding Three Mile Island, military personnel exposed to nuclear tests, and so forth. The fact that in the Marshalls thyroid cancer ts more prevalent in people exposed to lower than to higher levels of radiation is not widely known in the United