Attachment #1.'
Robert G. Loeffler, M.D.

9521 Weodington Drive

Potemac, MD

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20854

Jaly 23, 1980
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& Birling
Coed ~vn
888 Sixteenth Street, N.W.

Washington, D.C.

20006

_ Dear Richard,

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ACHE LOO

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BEST COPY AVAILABLE

I have had the opportunity to review the most recent commmication fon

Wallace 0. Green, Deputy Under Secretary, Territorial and International

Affairs, to President Amata Kabua, wherein certain “clarifications” are

detailed by Mr. Bruce W. Wachholz, germman> to the proposed asreement of
March 27, 1980 for the medical survey of the inhabitants of Likiep
Atoll. I find these clarifications mest welcame since they specify, to
a degree, the proposed "biochemical screening profile”.
Before commenting specifically on them, I must appraise you of same
general considerations in light of ow April 23, 1980 meeting with
representattives of the Department cf Energy (DOE), Brockhaven National
Laboratory (BNL), and the Department of Interior. I also fourd this

meeting helpful ard informative, specifically discussions with Dr.

Pratt, whose extensive medical experience and data gathering at the
Marshall Islands clearly detailed majar foreseeable difficulties with
the proposed stixiies by the Department of Interior and the Department of
Imergy.
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a

It is blatantly clear that interpretation of hiochemical analyses re-

quires a reference standard of comparison normal values.

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Simply put,

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such a normal standard currently does not exist for the Marshallese

population at large. Dr. Pratt informed us that several prior attempts
of gathering biochemical and hematological data from populations in the
Marshall Islands, other than Rongelap and Utirik, to be used as nommal
Standard reference, could net be meaningfully interpreted forto reasons:

1)

‘The data obtained varied considerably from established

nomns, and

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2) ~ the quantity of data collected was not large enough to
be statistically significant.
The March 27 procosal, as you know, plans on studying Likiep Atoll and
one other atoll, as a “comparison populaticn”....I find it difficult to
“To
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