, Page Seven Jonathan Weisgall January 21, 1982 ..,— - .... —— 22-Year $umnary of Thyroid Findings, where Conard states: “The moan latent period for radiation-induced thyroid tumors may be as long as 30 years (page 9, emphasis added).” Following this point, a noted thyroid cancer researchevt posited In a an even longer period for the induction of thyroid cancer. lg7S paper titled “Etiology of Thyroid Cancer” (in Th roid cancer (et al.) by Larry Greenfield, CRC Press, Florida, 1978), LouI%leann s postulated that the moan latency period of thyroid cancer may be as long as 40years (page 47, emphasis added). “3. Different effects of radiation depending on age.” Response: I refer you again to the 1980 AAAS symposium, where J. E. Rail of the National Institutes of Health addresses this question In discussing the thyroid uptake in reference to the Marshallese. of the radioiodines in the exposed populations, Rail says: “Another peculiar and interesting property iS that the uptake of iodine by the thyroid is generally about the same in children as it is in adults. That is, the fraction of iodine ingested which goes to the thyroid Is about the same in a child as it is in anahlt. But a child of a year has a thyroid which weighs one gram, and an adult thyroid weighs about twenty orams. so if You Dut the same amount of material in oni gram yhu q& twenty times a.~guch radiation> So children get substantially higher doses.” (AAAS symposium, page 18, emphasis added). .. In addition to the above, it should be noted that if the B< kians are returned to their home atoll, children will be at a much hiaher risk for IIossible cancer induction because theY-by defini;lon--wlll have a longer residence period on the atoll in which to contract a possible malignancy. “4. Fish at Bikini, My notes state that you were told by a University of Hawaii graduate student who accompanied DOE missions to the Marshalls that there are between 800 and 1,000 different species of f~sh at Bikini. Are all of these species highly migratory or are there special problems at Bikini related to consumption of fish there7 Are these species found only at Bikini? Where is the underlying data?” During the June 1975 DOE survey to Utlrik, I met a 9: doctors student from the University of Hawaii who was doing research He told me that he was studying with the Department of Oceanography. reef fish niche in Pacific atolls, and I remember my amazement when he told me there were “between 800 and 1,000 different species of reef fish at a typical atoll in the Marshals.” This student--whose name I unfortunately cannot remember--told me that most of the reef fish (as their name implies) were sedentary and usually did not venture out into the open ocean. As opposed to the migratory fishes, ,’ +76 “ “7