The Honorable Wallace ©. Green
Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary
Territorial & International Affairs
August 8, 1980
Page Nine
help them.
And this was the sum of the investi-
gation and treatment of the eye problems,--of what
I think is a unique epidemic of cataracts.
The follow-up care of patients with total
ablation of the thyroid also appears inadequate.
Some had stopped their medicine because of side
reactions and appear hypothyroid to my eyes.
No
regular follow-up has been pursued to allow change
of thyroid medication, or increase or decrease of
dosage.”
Dr. Merliss makes several recommendations which we
believe merit serious consideration in connection with the
proposed medical surveys to be conducted in the Marshall
Islands in the course of implementing Public Law 96-205. We
request that you and other appropriate United States govern-
ment officials review Dr. Merliss'
findings and. recommendations
and meet with us to cetermine how ris recommendations can be
implemented and the medical problems which he identifies can
be treated in the most expeditious manner.
In order to obtain useful information from the
outside contractor which the Interior Department proposes to
use to assist in ceveloping the health care plan, the contract
document must be carefully drafted and the questions to be
answered clearly stated.
We request that the contractor be
asked to address the following questions:
1.
In light of the fact that no dose assessment
was carried out in the Marshall Islands at the
time of the nuclear weapons testing program, how
can it now be determined whether certain atolls of
the Marshall Islands were "exposed" to radiation
from the nuclear weapons testing program?
2.
What level of radiation exposure can be
definitively medically determined to have zero
potential effect on the natural or human environ-
ment of an atoll?