fee) stewie!a sidered nancontaminated al present, all cf them in the south, Exewetak island, anchoring the southern quad- SAwe SN ; U.S. decontlammation program. A rant of the vast draging reel, and little publicized study by the Brooktwo dots nomhward, Mecren island, haven Nabonal Laboratory reported were once dusting olaces where as” in 1974 that growth retardation and many as 10,000 scientists ard sup thyroid tumors. have developed in port personnel lived hile exploding some Rongelao residents. : nuctear devices at the atolls north: They received skin uradiation in : erm section. the “thousands of rads‘ from the In the 1900s, Enewetak again be downwind’ fallout.of Operation for erd g receivin the as came active Vravo, the U.S. hydrogen domh missles lauacked fram Vandenberg explosion at Bikini of March 1, 195+, ‘Ate Foree Base in Calforr ia. Nose vos > the study said.-* vr cones were aimed at the Ingoon and “At the-time of the (fallout) accirecovered from its depths cf 10 to dent it was-not considered likely that sree oe 200 fext. the thyroid had received o sufficient Troops of the &ith heavy combat icledine to result in. dose cf t endineertay Daitalion irom Schorria abnormalities.” In “retrospect Chis Barracks in Hawan started arriving proved to-be quite wrong, since thy- . Jast weeX to clean up from the northroid injury-and its sequelae have ern ares an estimated 125,0Mcubic been the most serious late result of. yards of noncontaminated Gedris, the fallout exposure of the Marshal7,300 cubic yards of radioactive lese people,” said the report. Material and another 79,00) cubic Of G8 persons-irradiated on Ronyards of sou contaminated wilh plugalep, 29 developed thyroid abnor: ~ lonium. . . ae malities by 1974 and 24°underwenl For the next six months they will surgery for the removal of tissue. ak Enewel on s facrlitie ing be renovat Cancer was found in three of the 24and building a muni-city on Lojwa, north the patienls, -': in islands few the of one The 20year Brookhaven review, considered safe, A thousand troops carried out for the Atomic Energ and dacontaminabon scientists will canCommission, said: ‘Regarding be sanitizing the aloll when the cer of the thyroid, on the basis of operation reaches 14 peak by the Marshall -Istands statistics, about end of the year. 0.033 cases would be expected in the When throuzn, they will dismantle Rongelap group over the 20-year most of the structures, thea turn penod, whereas three Cases occur: over to the Department of Interior of red." : ror an additional $12 milhon job The 157 or 183 people of Utirik cresting aa agriculturat base and atoll were farther downwind and reheing facihues in a land-use plan ceived perhaps a 10th as many rads, worked oul in agreement with the which are a unit of absorbed dosaye. Enewetak peogle. Oi that atoll, the study said: "la the Utirik population about 0.05 cases “NENT: The Enewelax piopie return Da. would be expected and ene octurhome. red: in view of the low dase of radiaticn it is unhikely taat this case js radiation inducted.”* . lt now develoos, however, that more than one malignancy have occurred among the Utink people. An ERDA health team bas documented three confirmed cases of thyroid cancer, with still another unconfirmed. The Uliric people reportedly have lost confidence in the TRDA health visits, which are paid four times a year. . The incidence of thyroid cancer an Uuirie may lead to a reexamination of previously assumed “sale” levels of roming radiation : Dr. Knud D Knudsen, an ERDA physician stationed on Kwajalein atoll, left by boat last week to con: duct the quarterly essing of DeaiTa and Rongelap but wil not visit Utir- - ic, according to Theodore MurawsW, anather, FRDA health official on Kwajalein. «7 : . “We're trying- gel-another physician out here to visit Uorie." he said. "Dr. Xnudsen is not rane lo Line on this tip in part because the people there don’t want him" Jb as astainst this backzround that ERDA and the Defense Nuclear Ag ency are veginning their three-year cleanup of Enewetax with $20 milhon appropriated by Congress Visitors to the atoll arrive at Lneweta island, the largest of some 40 islands that encircle the placid waters of a lagoon 17 miles across and 23 miles long in a northerly southerly axis. The neine “Enewetak’ is preferred by the islanders over "Eniwetok,” the More coramon usage in past news stories. Although a pinprick on the map, the atoll becomes a world of ts own ms che searches the hortzon, ah'e to ser only a few of the scores of islets. In a corrugaled tin building, the humidity held in check by trade winds end one strugstting air condi. lroner, Army Col, Edeact Mixan ded a briefings on the plan to teturn Enewetak to the people who, cords iB lo their ieyends, were “oere from the besinnag.” Twelve islands of the atoll are con- aiid PN ee Oe ~~ AS. nmewe talk - Sy we we wr we ww W4dU TL LAAMAL |