be like a hysterecotomy. Formerly that used to require quite a large incision and now that has been refined to the point that it is very, kind of a small incision for that particular operation. So I am wondering why there hasn't been an advance or that same kind of improvement made in the. thyroid incision. Ray: How come it is still just as big as it has ever been? I suggest that that's another one to refer to Doctor Dobbins or one of the thyroid surgeons who comes out, on the regular visits. Marshallese: Now my question is referred to studies that are made by the Department of Interior, as well as your own studies, and I'm wondering if the incidence of diabetes and the incidence of thyroid cancer or thyroid, is that the same between the Marshalls and Yap? Ray: I don't believe we are competent to answer that question unless Dr. Bair has something to say about it. health services people, to answer. Marshallese: I think that's a question for the Those who have records of health care. Well, then this gives rise to my next question which is, isn't that, isn't our diet, the assumption about diet, isn't that something that actually a physician should be addressing and talking about? Ray: Not for our purposes. Our purpose in discussing diet is not to be discussing nutrition and the value of the food that you eat, too, to your body and whether that diet itself causes illness, but rather to use the diet as a measure of how much radioactive material is taken into the body. We do not concern ourselves, when we talk about diet, with whether that diet might result in diabetes or any other illness. That's beyond our, the scope of our study. Marshallese: All right, it is clear, it is clear that you are not talking about nutrition but you are talking about the entrance into the body of radionuclides through the food chain. you know this. And you are not doctors, so how do How do you know, how, what..., how can you tell us the 22