Thyroid Abnormalities Small growths (neoplasms) were felt in the thyroids of three young girls at 9 and 10 years post exposure. They were subsequently operated upon and their thyroids totally or partially removed. Since that time in 1963, operations for thyroid nodules have been performed on 20 people, 17 from the Rongelap exvosed, one from Ailinginae, one from Utirik, and one person from Rongelap not exposed to the original fallout. While it is generally acknowledged that most of these nodules are nonmalignant operations were performed for two reasons, (1) (not cancerous), the to check for possible malignancy, and (2) for removal based on the fact that the thyroids were no longer functioning and.to anticipate the possibility of the growths turning malignant at a later date. In all, four of these nodules were found to have "malignant lesions" according to a report from Dr. Conard. (See appendix summarizing the 1972 survey). As explained before, it was known that the thyroids of the persons had been exposed to doses near or above tolerance. However, especially in the case of exposed children, the differing size of the thyroid was not taken into consideration and this resulted in little expectation of later nodule development. Despite this fact, and probably in consideration of thyroid findings in exposed Japanese at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the thyroid was watched carefully in all of the surveys and various tests were conducted to try and locate -- short of surgery ~~ any possible abnormalities. These tests, however, failed to indicate any future possible problems because of the presence of an unusually high amount of certain chemicals Americans. fO1812t (iodoprotein) in the Marshallese compared to Thus it was that the eleven and twelve year report commented that: we