‘ . - oo Mr. Thomas ’S. © 4 ” Dunnire. : . wn ~ 3 - fs Since the submission of Mr. Carver's letter, numerous cases of thyroid - disease have appeared in the exposed population and a fatal case of : leukemia occurred in 1972. . Of the 64 Rongelap inhabitents who were present on Rongelap Atoll at the time of the test, 21 have developed wee. . thyroid tumors; three.were malignant...Age was a factor. in the incidence + of thyroid disease in that 17 of the 21 cases of thyroid tumors occurred -> among the 19 individuals who |ware less than ten years of age at the time of the test, An additiona our cases of thyroid-tumors developed among . _...2... me oae 18 Rongelapese of all ages who happened to be on the neighboring Ailinginage Atoll at the time of the test and who received a smaller radiation dose. - Yhere is no question that radioactive iodine in the fallout was responsibdl 2 for the high jncidence of thyroid tumors in the Rongelap inhabitants. oe sos ot It is difficult to establish a causative relation-ship between radiation. exposure and any single case of leukemia. Howevur,.the observations that the individual who developed leukemia was one year old at thermonucl onset of 1 the leukes nia The the-time of the st and had required thyroid surgery for tumors before the ia are suggestive of a relationship between the exposure and , inhabitents of Utirik received only small radiation exposures as a “ct result of the test. The people were evacuated from their Atoll and relocated elsewhere for a few months. ° However, during the last twenty years, the people of Utirik have felt chatthayafeentitled to some compensation because of theix radiation exposure and the forced evacuation from their “Atoll, experienced in relation to the 1954 test. The nature.and amount of compensation provided to the peaple of Rongelap by the Congress under P.L, 88-485 was based on the informetion available at the time Congressional action was taken on the bills. That information as presented in Mr, Carver's letter included only the minor and indefinite medical effects observed up to that time! The thyroid tumors and leukem 5 described above were neither evident nor predicted at the tine of Congressional action. The medical developments that have occurred since 3 7 ' oe ‘ Although they recognise that the risk and dislocation were much less than those of the Rongelapesa, the Utirik inhabitants have reasoned by analogy that their lesser risk and inconvenience warrant compensation, albeit smaller than that provided to the people of Rongelap. Since the Utirik people nave cooperated with the Brookhaven National Laboratory medical team in medical follow-up examinations through the years, the AEC provided to the Trust Territory on June 25, 1974, a sum of $18,212 to be disbursed in equal paycents of $116 to each exposed inhabitant or his heirs, The. compensation requested by’the Special Joint’ Camnittee for the Utirik people would be in addition to the AEC payment and would be for inconvenience :