( © UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON ‘ SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 98195 - College of Fisheries Laboratory of Radiation Ecology . ALYZBI October 16, 1973 Dr. Robert A. Conard Medical Department Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, New York 11973 Dear Bob: I wish to renew the discussion about relating the medical information that you have for the Rongelapese and that we hope yoy;swill have for the Bikini and Eniwetok people to the environmental radiation as ‘thabitedin air, water, soil, plant, and animal samples, including foodstutfs. I know that you have had some discussion with Ed Held about this subject and you and I briefly discussed the subject at Livermore at the time of the first meeting of the Eniwetok Radiation Assessment and Review Group. Also, I understand that perhaps the future of your program, and certainly of an environmental program related to the medical program, is tied up with the availability of a ship and that Roger Ray, at the request of DBER, has made a recommendation regarding ship acquisition. Rongelap, as well as Bikini and Eniwetok, provides a unique opportunity to relate environmental radiation to body dose if adequate data are available. This is an opportunity to do emperically what many people are trying to do theoretically at many places with box models and without adequate concentration factors or transfer coefficients. At Rongelap there is the added advantage that part of the population was directly exposed to the March, 1954, fallout and part were not. Without examination of the relationship your past Rongelap medical data with our environmental data, I believe that the data are adequate to provide significant information and that the effort required for this endeavor would be justified. Since examination of the past data are likely to reveal loop holes, perhaps more important would be the addition of an environmental study to your medical studies at Rongelap next Spring and at Bikini and Eniwetok later, with the specific objective of obtaining information for relating body dose to environmental radiation. It just seems to me that it would take much of the guesswork out of many projects now going on. Our interest in a medical-environmental study is obvious and in order for such a program to develop there are many pieces that need to fit together. The first step on our part is to express our interest to you and to seek an informal response from you about a medical-environmental study. You are familiar with the size of the operation that Ed has had at Rongelap in the past and how he operates, and I would anticipate a somewhat similar operation for this study. Your comments will be appreciated. AHS: ah cc: Dr. E.E. Held With best regards, AX Allyn H. Seymour Director L290