UNITED STATES

ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION
; WASHINGTON, D.c,.

20545

Ave7 AS
May 4, 1966

MEMORANDUM FOR CHAIRMAN SEABORG
COMMISSIONER PALFREY
COMMISSIONER RAMEY
COMMISSIONER TAPE

pf THROUGH GENERAL MANAGER
SUBJECT:

ek Kh Viney Coon

CURRENT STATUS OF THYROID NODULES AMONG THE MARSHALLESE
EXPOSED TO FALLOUT FROM THE BIKINI TEST OF MARCH 1, 1954

In our last memorandum on this subject, October 11, 1965, it was noted

that a cumulative total of 11 instances of nodular thyroid glands had
been found in the 69 surviving Marshallese who had been exposed to

Fallout from the subject test while on Rongelap and on Ailingnae.

Ail

but one of these cases were in young people who were less than 10 years
old at the time of exposure,
The single exception was in a 4l-year~old
woman (approximately 30 at time of exposure) who was found to have a
carcinoma of the thyroid at operation.
Dr. Robert A, Conard of the Medical Department of Brookhaven National

Laboratory, and leader of the annual (or more often) medical surveys
of these people, has just returned from the latest survey conducted

during February and March of 1966.

He reports that an additional five

cases of nodular thyroids have been diagnosed in this group,
cumulative incidence is shown in the following table,
Age at
Exposure

Number
Exposed

1-5
6-10
11-15
16-20

32

56
44
-

3

69

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Total Incidence of Nodules
Through March 1966
Number
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