save convenience to persons past that point. Human error or misjudgment was also responsible for underestimating the potential yield of "Bravo," and poor judgment resulted in the Rongelapese remaining on their island for two days, and the Utirikese for three days after the explosion--rather than only one day. Whether these actions and events were the result of human error, poor judgment, miscalculation, and faulty assumptions, or whether they were in reality steps or phases ina conscious and known plan is a decision the Committee will leave up to the reader of this report. As to the medical aspects, the Committee also tinds that human error and faulty assumptions and miscalculations have pervaded the annual examinations and conservative and minimizing attitudes have tended to obscure both \ 1.e seriousness e1 the original exposures and the significance of later findings which are related to irradiation. While the Committee finds no gross or flagrant violation of the general principles of the Hippocratic oath, which is, as generally understood, supposed to serve as a guideline in treating patients under the care of a physician, there have been tests and studies of the people involved which did not necessarily prove of direct benefit to the people, three-year report: This can be shown in the (p. 22) “The group of irradiated Marshallese people offers a most valuable source of data on human beings who have sustained injury from all the possible modes of exposure-- . . Even though . . . the radioactive contamination of Rongelap Island is considered perfectly safe for human habitation, the levels of activity are higher than those found in other inhabited locations in the world, The habitation of these people on the island will afford most valuable ecological radiation data on human beings." and in the four-year report: (p. 32) “The habitation of these people on Rongelap Islands affords the opportunity for a Since only small most valuable ecological radiation study on human beings. amounts of radioisotopes are necessary for tracer studies, the various radionuclides present on the island can be traced from the soil through the food and into the human being, where the tissue and organ distributions, biological half-times, and excretion rates can be studied," 151 10141549.