2.2 Return to Rongelap - 1957 The AEC (Atomic Energy Commission)!’ decision that Rongelap had become safe was based on field data by the Radiation Ecology Laboratory, University of Washington College of Fisheries, and dose calculations by AEC staff. For 1957 the annual external gamma"“dose" at Rongelap Island was estimated to be less than 0.5 roentgen, the maximum permissible for the general population, and it was expected to decline owing to physical decay. However, the AEC assessment was inadequate with respect to internal dosage resulting from contaminated food (Note 5). In 1957, therefore, the Rongelap people returned to Rongelap Island. In March 1958 there were 81 persons there who had been exposed on - Rongelap or Ailingnae, and approximately 100 others who had not. To anticipate any late effects that might follow the acute exposures of 1954, the AEC commissioned Brookhaven National Laboratory's Medical Division to establish the Marshall Islands Medical Program, whose staff has visited the Rongelap people once or twice a year since 1957 (Note 4). Since Rongelap soil still contained low levels of radionuclides which might enter the body through the food chain, the program included equipment to measure radionuclides within the human body (whole-body counting). Since 1978 the counting program has been operated by Brookhaven's Safety & Environmental Protection Division. .-3 Rongelap: 1957-1987 The medical findings were summarized or updated by R. A. Conard, who led the whole program for many years (Conard et al. 1958; 1975; 1980) and more recently by Adams et al (1984). The status of the dosimetry, originally included in the Conard reports, has been more recently reported on by Lessard et al (1984; 1985). In brief, on the basis of these reports, the following sequence of health-related events occurred over the past 30 years. 1957-63. Among the usual problems in the Marshall Islands were parasitism, chronic skin disease, diabetes adult-onset type II, and bad teeth in adults, and a variety of infant and childhood diseases including infant diarrhea.. The vast majority of skin reactions to radiation had disappeared without sequelae, except for scarring in the most heavily irradiated cases. No skin cancers were observed. Two possible examples of radiation effects occurred. First, it was reported that about twice as many abnormally terminated pregnancies occurred among the exposed parents as would be expected normally. Second, two boys showed markedly stunted growth, suggesting thyroid def: iency. 1/ The AEC was the predecessor of DOE. 14