Department of BNL. My comments will be directed only to the alternatives for the BNL inter€ace with the DOI health care system. During the development of the Burton Bill, one of the authors, Ted Mitchell, consulted with our BNL staff, asking for our opinions about current and past medical experiences in the Marshall Islands. The BNL Medical Survey Teams over the last 26 years have provided in essence, periodic high quality medical care, and Utirik. specifically for the people of Rongelap, Ailingnae In addition, particularly over the last five years, we have been called on as consultants for primary care, interacting with the Trust Territory and more recently with the Marshall Island Health Care Delivery System. Our original mandate from the Department of Energy was to monitor the exposed population of those atolls for the earliest effects of radiation and to treat those conditions expeditiously. The radiation related pathology detected to date has been limited almost exclusively to the thyroid gland, except for one case of acute myelogenous leukemia. The rest of the medical care delivered by the BNL medical temas has really been nonradiation related. During 1979 approximately 1,000 Marshallese were seen on three separate field visits. We currently hold well over 1,000 active medical charts for the exposed and “comparison” populations containing clinical data for the last 26 years. We feel it would be appropriate to continue to offer our services specifically in the detection and treatment of radiation-related pathology. The ambiguities of the bill will almost certainly overload the system with nonradiation related illnesses. solutions to this problem. A number of alternatives exist for the A spectrum of options could be envisioned ranging from a very narrow and precise definition of the term "radiation-related diseases" to the much more likely Marshallese interpretation including all people impacted psychologically by the weapons test program. 9006594 ~4- These options