Chapter V — The Continuing Medical Surveys
continued under contract with BNL. I was
A. Need for Continuing Medical Surveys -
asked tobethe program director.®
AEC Mandate for the Examinations
Following the initial medical examinations. the people of Rongelap were reexamined
Trust Territory under the Departmentof
by medical teams headed at six months by V. P.
Interior and, more recently, the Republic of the
Marshail Islands. The participation of the
Bond (Naval Radiological and Defense
Laboratory) (A-3), at one year by E. P. Cronkite
(Brookhaven Nationai Laboratory) (A-4) and at
two years by me (A-5). In 1956, I resigned from
the Navy andjoined the staff at Brookhaven.
The Rongelap peopie had moved to a temporary village constructed for them at Ejet
Island, Majuro Atoll. For the examinations, the
people were transported by boat to the main
island at Majuro, several miles away. An unexposed population of Rongelap peopie living at
health service personnel ef the Marshall
Islands has been indispensable to the success of
this project. During the early phases of the
examinations, the need for, and extensiveness
of, the examinations had te be clarified with the
Trust Territory officials. Also, there was con-
cern that the Rongelap people were not adjust-
ing satisfactorily since returning to their island
and that the crew going ashore from the Navy
LSTs at the time of the examinations might
have a disrupting influence. Subsequently, the
situation improved when Trust Territory ships
were used and the numberof survey personnel
reduced.
Majuro was selected as a comparison group and
given the same examinations as the exposed
people. This population was blood relatives of
the exposed peopie, living under the same conditions, and matched reasonably well for age
and sex.
Examinations during the first two years
showed that the initia] acute effects of the radiation exposure had largely subsided (see next
Section). The people were reasonably heaithy
and no deaths could be attributed to radiation
romee)
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B. Limitation and Expansion of Program
The Brookhaven medical program in the
Marshall Islands was designated by the AEC as
a research program with a mandate to examine
and treat the Marshallese people who had been
exposed to fallout. The responsibility for the
oo.
thai
antra
rationexpal
uate CHaeons
cere seersHower
ere
in¥iew of:een
agomic bembs at Hifsaiims and
qm th
of otherirradiated populations,
Marshallese were at greater than normal risk of
late effects, such as leukemia and other types of
cancer (B-31). Therefore, we recommended that
annual examinations of the Rongelap people be
continued indefinitely. Looking at the small’
radiation exposure of the Utirik population, we
considered that examinations every three years
would be adequate. (Later, when thyroid abnormalities appeared in that population, annual
examinations were carried ot).
The Division of Biology and Medicine of the
AEC agreed with these recommendatiogs; and
in 1957, with the concurrence of the Trust
Territory, requested that the examinations be
neg
~
I0G8 fbb
*
Kenda
KiDetinruersomseant edings
be
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The examinations by the Brookhaven medical team have been a joint project with the
generalhealthcareoftheMarshallese, includfrig the éxpesedpopulations;haddeen catab- —
lished as a responsibility of the Trust Territory
Governmest..Aatimewent.op,it became...
increaaingly apparent that the primary health
care afforded by theTrust Territoryiin the
Outer Islandswasinadequaté.andthémedial
team attempted to increase medical care. Our
team was later criticized for not assuming
.
greater responsibility for general health care of
the Marshallese. Another criticism was that the
people were being treated as “guinea pigs’,
which was probably related to the fact that
numerous examinations and tests were being
carried out by the medical team because of the
limited knowledge about the effects of fallout
*Tt abould be pointed out that the AECnaturally turned to agen
Cies under contract to them, principally the National
Laboratories, for essiatance in
radiation problems.
Except for the military laboratories, there are few other agencies
that have the capabilities for such assistance.