UNITED STATES . ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20543 403528 October 11, 1965 MEMORANDUM FOR CHAIRMAN SEABORG COMMISSIONER PALFREY COMMISSIONER RAMEY COMMISSIONER TAPE e Gindp Lee fe THROUGH GENERAL MANAGERfre SUBJECT: RECENT INFORMATION ON THYROID DISEASE IN THE MARSHALLESE ISLANDS Dr. Robert A. Conard of the Medical Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, has just returned from an interim visit to the Marshall Islands to check on possible further development of thyroid abnormalities in the Rongelapese accidentally exposed to fallout on March 1, 1954. He was accompanied by Dr. J. E. Rall, a consultant thyroid specialist of the National Institutes of Health. It will be recalled that, as of mid-summer, benign nodules had been found in a total of five adolescents exposed at ages of two to seven years; one adult female, forty-one years old, had been found to have a malignant nodule. All successfully underwent surgery for removal of the abnormal tissue. Attached is a copy of our July 12, 1965, memorandum to you describing the successful surgery for two children and the adult. During the current August examination, nodules were found in three additional adolescents and two adults. The contours of the thyroids of two more adolescents, two young adults, and one man approaching middle age were sufficiently different from normal to cause Drs. Conard and Rall to describe them as questionable. To summarize, there are now eleven of eighty-two Marshallese with definite abnormalities of their thyroid tissues and five more are considered questionably so. 86 306 U.SRPOMARCH GY COMMISSION | Collection FC Seaeorce Bex 6% OriwDoci pence oF TayRois FolderCauccn OTAbn Diseases bor THE Evatsep Grruss [1eS-/768P 24