BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL: LABORATORY ‘ HOL7O7 ASSOCIATED UNIVERSITIES, INC. UPTON, LiL, N.Y. 11973 MEDICAL DEPARTMENT TELEPHONE: (516) 345- 3577 November 21, 1975 Dr. James L. Liverman Assistant Administrator for Environmental Safety . Energy Research and Development Administration Washington, D.C. 20545 + Dear Jim: The purpose of this letter is to acquaint you with a change in our conclusion regarding radiation etiology of thyroid cancer in the Marshall- ese population of Utirik who had been exposed to low doses of radiation from’ fallout. In 1969 one of the Utirik women had a ‘thyroid tumor re- moved which was malignant. It was believed that this one case could well have been a natural occurrence and since no nodules had been detect- ed in the Utirik children and only a normal incidence of benign nodules had developed in the adults I had advised the Congress of Micronesia, in response te questions submitted, that it was unlikely that any of the thyroid abnormalities noted in the Utirik population (158 people) were related to radiation exposurc. As you know the subject of additionai compensation for the exposed Marshallese is about to come up before our Congress. The Department of Interior is handling this matter. Of course the Congress of Micronesia is pushing for passage of such a bill and the questions asked me concerning various aspects of our medical findings were related to this. , Last month another thyroid tumor was removed from a 25 year old female exposed on Utirik at 4 years of age, the first tumor to be detect- ed jn the younger ave group of that population. The diagnosis on this tumor has been controversial among nine outstanding thyroid pathologists ~., three favaring a diagnosis of cancer, two atypical bonign adenoma and four aveundeci¢c.a but willing to call it a premalignant lesion ov cancerin-situ. We have decided to call it cancer-in-situ and for statistical purposes classify it as cancer. In order to obtain advice on chances that these two cancers in the Utirik group were related to their radiation cxposure I visited Drs. Brian MacMahon and George B. Hutchison, at the School of Public Health at Harvard Medical School for review of the Marshallese data. Both of these men are experts in population statistics. They concluded that the "occurrence of 2 cases by chance is extremely unlikely". of their conclusions is attached. 901 | My WWEORMATION OPLCRATON (PAG) 945-2923 <A suamary