4OS527 FIVE MARSHALL ISLANDERS TO BE EXAMINED AT BROOKHAVEN MEDICAL CENTER Upton, New York, May » 1966. Five people from Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific will be brought to the Medical Research ‘Center of AEC's Brookhaven National Laboratory at Upton, Lele, NeY., this month for clinical examination and possible surgery. They have nodules -- . a thickening or hardness -- in their thyroid glands which appear to be the result of exposure to fallout radiation from an atmospheric nuclear detonation at Bikini 12 years ago. Of the five, one is a mature woman, three are girls in their early teens, and one is a young woman under 21 years of age. The five additional cases, noted early this year during the continuing annual medical surveys of the islanders, bring the total number of thyroid cases to 16 out of the original 82 Rongelap people who were exposed. The thyroid nodules were first detected in March, 1964, duringthe tenth annual medical survey of the people of Rongelap and Utirik Atolls. Thirteen of 19 children in the more heavily exposed group, all of whom had been exposed at less than ten years of age, had nodules. All nodules of those children who were examined or treated surgically were found to be benign. Only one pere- son, a woman of 40 years, had cancer of the thyroid, for which she received surgery a year ago, and is now doing well. In addition, there were two boys with hypothyroidism in the exposed group who had previously shown growth retardation, These boys have improved as a result of the thyroid hormone therapy instituted six months ago. : a BEST COPY AVAILABLE oe ‘ | ‘DOE ARCHIVES ~ (were) Zt