Attachment #1.' Robert G. Loeffler, M.D. 9521 Weodington Drive Potemac, MD so 20854 Jaly 23, 1980 | & Birling Coed ~vn 888 Sixteenth Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20006 _ Dear Richard, . ACHE LOO | | . 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. . a It is blatantly clear that interpretation of hiochemical analyses re- quires a reference standard of comparison normal values. A Simply put, oN 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 , _ 7 a oS “ 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 ° i.