*) oa These include: acute effects, malignancies, degenerative diseases, growth and development, thyroid, ‘ — £ or ~rhertttepaemens ancl well as a summary of findings over the years since 1954. lt Nef \_——+ Ley eye, skin, blood, dental, aging, radionuclide intake from environment, blood groupings and special studies. Also included are appendices which give statistical data for the areas studied, as well as case histories of those persons operated on for thyroid abnormalities. footnotes, appear to be exhaustively thorough, highly professional and extremely detailed. concise. In addition to all this, the language of the reports is clear and In short, they are well written, illustrated in an interesting fashion, r __—} ‘arm well laid out, and carefully edited. aeeememtt The reports, documented with Generally speaking, if there is a "flaw" in the reports themselves, it is due not to the report or its contents, but rather due to the nature of the subject matter covered. For the most part they are so technical in nature and replete with scientific data as to be virtually incomprehensible to the layman -- however, the summaries of work carried out, average reader. Specifically, however, the Committee finds certain threads of reasoning, assumption, and exposition running through the reports which it finds both frustrating and somewhat disconcerting. One of these is inherent to the basically conservative nature of scientific investigation and seems to permeate medical and scientific expositions concerning relatively new fields of inquiry. .* re -~—¥ —_—e te and of past medical findings are generally understandable and valuable to the It appears to be a basic tenet -- and not necessarily an unwarranted one -- that scientists are loath to make conclusions with any sort of finality about their findings and the implications of such, unless there is voluminous statistical data to support such definite conclusions. Thus, for example, many times to the reader will encounter such statements as "although these findings appear 91