The Honorable Wallace 0. Green Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary Territorial & International Affairs August 8, 1980 Page S1x The Government of the Marshall Islands is extremely pleased that pursuant to Public Law 96-205 the people of Rongelap and Utirik finally will be afforded medical treatment, rather than merely being the subjects of medical research. The background information regarding Rongelap and Utirik in the Discussion Paper raises one very important point regarding the feasibility of concucting any survey to establish the medical effects of radiation exposure on a population the Size of the Marshall Islands, all of whom have been exposed to some level of radiation. As part of the medical research conducted on Rongelap, Rongelap people not on Rongelap at the time of the 1954 disaster have been used as a comparison population. Some of the comparison group are actually descendants of exposed people. Both the medical personnel of Brookhaven National Laboratories and other medical experts we have consulted agree that, particularly in light of the genetic abnormalities which can be caused by radiation exposure and passed through generations and the fact that all of the Marshallese people have received radiation exposure, a Medically "normal" Marshallese control population simply cannot be found. We are extremely disturbed by subpart (d) on page 6 of your paper regarding discussions between the Government of the Marshall Islands and the Government of the United States concerning the severe, potentially radiation related, medical problems which appear to exist among Marshallese people of atolls other than Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap and Utirik. Shortly after taking office on May 1, 1979, the Government of the Marshall Islands received preliminary data indicating repeated cases of medical abnormalities of a type often related to radiation exposure in people of several northern atolls. The greatest bulk of the first information was received from the people of Likiep. The Government of the Marshall Islands brought this preliminary, yet alarming, data to Washington later in May and presented it to an interagency meeting. The Government requested that persons with untreated medical problems be provided with care at the earliest possible date and also asked the United States to assist the Government of the Marshall Islands in identifying those -people in need of such care. The description in your Discussion Paper mischaracterizes these events in several important ways.