‘ : - ete ‘Deat AP e Me Cra Pp, isd Intell igence, Inc. WASHINGTON, 0. C. Frond Page Edit Page 20001 Other Page ZALLTIMORE, MARYLAND SUN MAY 28 1976 ue - 178,205 E - 181,837 S - 340,098 waeee. a . anne + enema 22 years after Bikini nuclear blast oe Islandersstill treated for radiation Started to itch and form blisawcae tO a clap of thunder ters and one man went blind ang saw “a dig ball of red in beeause he let the snow fall on the western sky.” she and his eyes, hoping it would cure three of her children have had his cataracts.” their thyroids removed beSince the explosion, which cause of radiation damage, Was code-named “Bravo,” more than 35 per cent of the people who were on Rongelap have developed radiation-induced “thyroid lesions,” some of which have developed into cancer. Nineteen, like Mrs. Boas and her children, have had their thyroids removed. The thyroid cancers were discovered eight years ago when two Rongelap youths suddenly stopped growing, a phenomenon eventually attributed to a radiation-induced thyroid problem. Later, an 18-year-old boy who had been a fetus at the time of the explosion died of leukemia. More recently, doctors have discovered an increase in strange kidney disorders. Now they are concerned about the unusual bumps on Mrs. Boas’s head. In addition, an official of the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration said, “an undetermined number of others have died due to [medical reasons aggravated dergoing tests on suspicious bumps that have begun to ap- warned people not to eat coco- pear on her head. One of the Japanese fishermen died in Tokyo of radia- | tion sickness six months after ‘hirg soyage to American rer arch hospitals, was one of i} ergy Research and Develop1 ment Admir ‘tration, which them its safe to go home,” about 240 islanders, 28 American servicemen and 23 Japa- Fourth in a series By MATTHEW J. SEIDEN Sun Staff Correspondent Kwajalein Atoll. the Marshai Islands— Twenty-two years ago, the United States set off. on Bikini Atoll here in the mid-Pacific, the largest thermonuclear biastit has ever exploded~a 17-megaton device nearly a thou- sand times more powerful than the bomb which leveled Hiroshima in August, 1945. At the time of the Bikini explosion, Elien Boas was a 23-year-old mother of five, hying peacefully on the re- mete island of Rongelap, less than 100 miles east of Bikini, and more than 4.000 miles {rom the US. West Coast. Since that memorable day is March 1954. when she nese fishermen to ra- diation from the Bikini Atoll test biast. Despite the nearness of Mrs. Boas’s native island to Bikini, Rongelap’s 86 residents were neither warned of the explosion nor offered pasSage to a more distantisland. US. officials said the radiation exposure was caused by a sudden shift in wind which biew the deadly fallout in an direction. “After the thunder, the big red ball lasted for half an hoor, and then the white snow began to fall and it lasted for 12 hours,” said Mrs. Boas, who now has 13 children and 5 and now Mrs. Boas is un- by the radioactive fallout.” has been conducting periodic tests of the Marshallese raaiation victims, has not checked up on the 28 American vic- tims since initial tests made in 1954. Meanwhile, the former res- idents of Bikini, who were tola | by U.S. officials at the time of : the test that they could return to their island within a year or | two, now are suing the U.S. for a $1.5 million aeriai. ra- diological survey to determine if the island is safe for resettlement. The Energy Research ara Development Administra::on, which used to be known as the Atomic iunergy Commission, says thal Bikini “is safe to live on” except for the mud in the surrounding waters which is still “quite radioactive and highly dangerous.” The food chain, however,is “not seriously affected” in BiKini, according 10 the Energy Research and Development Administrat:on. On other islands, the administration has nuts, crabs, breadfruit and other staples of the Pacific 1s4 the explosion. The fate of the land diet. “My clients don't trust the other Japanese is unknown here, and remarkably, the En- official U.S. scienusts whotell Mrs. Boas, who spent the Togot at the US mussile range nere recently as she began her See BOMB, AZ, Zol. 6 CPM, mF } “+ < at re ~ : . bet § OAT CeEER8 ~~: mee PrePM Er ce we 1h aE te ee - cee eens = camaatemrginren yo gs ee me ae yo. . : ut - Jem ge pee tee ee