RADIATION Part ive Public Health Service, -5- three tnyroid experts are restuGying 3,600 children inthe two communities in order "to further evaiuate the status of thyroid abnormalities in the two groups." Further medical screening of the 95 students with nodules has turned up 12 children with inflamed thyroids. (tayroiditis) The inflamation was definitely diagnosed in five Utah children ané 15 strongly suspected in at Least four otner Utah cases. three cases have been found in Arizona, Only and two lived in areas that may have received fallout. These 12 cases are extremely important. Studies of the Mar- shallese have shown that no population is too small ‘to be investigated when it is exposed to radiation. Marked changes occurring in a very small group can tip us off to unsuspected or overlooxec effects in large populations. . Since A-bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission has studied some 100,000 people in these cities and found a slight decrease in height among the Japanese exposed to radiation. This was not thought to be of any particular significance until the Marshall Islands study showed a definite decrease in height, presumably from radiation. Tae ABCC’'is now re-examining its medical data by ase and sex vroups. This re-examination may confirm that retardation of the (ac of boys under 8 years at time of exposure is a common long- +».