ca ee ee er eee nae re que on Aging and Life Shortening in Human Populations -. 489 Fig. 1, Malignant lesion in thyroid gland removed from a 41-year-old Marshallese woman who had been exposed to fallout. The malignant lesion can be seen to the right. Localized blood vessel and lymph node metastases were noted. Slight to moderate growth retardation in some exposed children had been noted beginning several years after exposure to fallout. Though numer- ous thyroid studies were done, thyroid deficiency was not detected at that time. However, more recently thyroid nodularity along with deficiency in serum thyroxine has been correlated with growth retardation in several children. Supplementary hormone therapy wasinstituted in the exposed Rongelap people in 1965, the rationale being to prevent the action of the thyroidstimulating hormoneon the injured glands and so hopefully, (a) repress further development of nodules and malignancy, (b) furnish needed hormone in | operated cases, and (c) possibly enhance growth in retarded children.It is too .early to know if this treatment is helping in the prevention of nodularity but it does appear to have enhanced growth and developmentin someoftheretarded children, particularly in the 2 hypothyroid boys who had shown the greatest retardation of growth. The importance oflate effects of radioiodine exposure is borne out by these findings particularly in the children. Though a few cases of thyroid cancer following radioiodine treatment have been noted, the correlation between treatment and developmentof the malignancy has usually not been clear-cut. 901 7% 34 che oe Om A A ee ba ee