May 2, 1983
~2-
Lessard to Meinhold
Dr. Adams feels that several cases of nodule incidence may he fortuitous.
Dr. Adams based his opinion on surgical notes and must confer with members of
the early medical teams directly before reaching a conclusion.
For completeness
these data have been included in Table One. To date no lethal thyroid cancers
have been observed in the exposed population.
Table 2 on Page 42 of the Report has numbers of people which are not in
agreement with data gathered by us (compare Table 2 to Table One of this correspondence for specific differences).
Table 2 also has a footnote for the Internal
Dose columns regarding an assumption without indicating the basis for the assumption. The relationship between thyroid absorbed dose from I-131 to that from I-132,
I-133 and I-135 was dependent upon the age of the fallout and not constant with
time.
A factor of 2.5, as indicated in the footnote, could not apply equally to
Ailinginae, Rongelap and Utirik groups since they were irradiated at different
times post detonation of BRAVO, the accident which led to their exposure. On
Page 41, line 14 of the Report was written that "7 total cases of thyroid cancer...
whereas 2 were expected...". We feel an accurate statement to be that: 4 cases of
thyroid cancer were found in the irradiated group at Rongelap Atoll whereas 0.56
were expected and 2 cases of thyroid cancer were found in the irradiated group at
Utirik Atoll whereas 1.4 were expected.
It is our concern that careful gathering and representation of basic data
may not have been done consistently throughout the Report. We feel all statements
and calculations be independently verified prior to approval of the Report by the
_ NCRP.
Sincerely yours,
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Attachment: Table One
tTte west
in. a
Edward T. Lessard
Co80 - Conard, Robert, M.D., 1980, Review of Medical Findings in a Marshallese
Population Twenty-six Years After Accidental Exposure to Radioactive
Fallout, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, N.Y., BNL #51261.