., deaths from these ulcers, according to the memory of the individuals that I spoke to. Startlingly, I WaS told repeatedly of deaths on Utric in the month following the bomb blasts. Several people from Utric told me of three in the month following the fizst blast, at least two of them being in children and one, to my memory, in a young woman. One suspects that this immediate type of response is due to direct radiation connected directly with the fallout, and probably not food-chain, although absolute certainty is not available. . .. .... .. ,:.>.?; . ,.... . .. . . .. ;. .A .,. ,, .. .=. ,. . *.. . . . .4./ :~. :: <!. -... .: . All of the people have consistently told me that the d~acje to the vegetation and the foods that they eat, -extremely limited to start with -- has been devastating” The Marshallese eat a limited diet consisting of fish, The most sensitive breadfruit, coconut, and arrowroot. But to radiation of the plants pro~-ed to be arrowroot. this ~’as a highly important foodstuff on these small islzz<s. As I understood from the Flarshallese that I spoke to, before the blast the arrowrootgrew as a tuber A healthy or rhizome on the root of a bushy type of plant. arrowroot plant would have six or so tubers, and would . yield a good deal of nutritious food. After the blast, the arrowroot plants themselves started to diminish and the number of tubers on the roots decreased until the point came at which the arrowroot has almost been lost on some of the islands and ,no longer serves as a staple in Lhe diet. The Marshallese describe to me the tubers shrinking to two to three on a bush,. and then to small tubers, and then to the plant just not ~ro~ing at all, or Similar effects occurred growing in a deformed manner. The tops of the coconut trees in the coconut trees. turned red or brown after the blasts, and many coconut The breadfruit trees t~-ees have not bol-ne as well since. Some have borne smaller fruit and often deformed fruit. of the trees themselves have become deformed. I am also struck by the high incidence of hyperten-” The incidence sion in the people of the Narshall Islands. of hypertension in the average white American male goes up to about five per cent depending on age. The freqency of h>~ertension however among the .Marshallese far outnumbers that, and judging from the hospital records that I looked .. . .. ‘.. . -7-