..+, Comments on “An Educational Program on the Effects of Fallout from Nuclear Tests for the Inhabitants of Bikini, Enewetak, Rongelap and . Utirik (Marshall Islands” A br’ By: W. J. Bair Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory Richland, WA’ 99352 ,. Paqe 1 - line 11 - It is not clear why reference is made to “the 28 American soldiers.” Were the soldiers’ presence on Rongerik for the purpose of dealing with emergencies? Or, on the other hand, the reader can get the idea that in mentioning the soldiers in the way you have you are indirectly criticizing the DOD for only preparing the soldiers for emergencies and not bothering with the Marshallese. Itwould be much better to be direct. At least explain the reason for mentioning the soldiers. Page 3 line 9-13 - I don’t think it is enough to say “occurrence of thyroid levels significantly above natural background,” and nodules,” “mtion “significant amounts of fallout radioactivity” without being more specific quantitatively. For example, can you say thyroid nodules in the it-radiated population but none in the unirradiated2 ~lso, what do you mean by significantly above and slgnltlcant amourlts: line 14 - If you mean the United States was not prepared to deal with the problems created by deposition of fallollt. nn inhabited islands--say so. line 15-19 - All”of this says that notlfingwas known about the biological /effects of radiation. If you believe this to be true, a look at the. “literature will convince you otherwise. The military may not have been prepared to deal with the situation but it wasn’t because knowledge of radiation biology was lacking. ! line 28 - One case of leukemia does not demonstrate anything and dertai’nly has no bearing on the uncertainty of the thyroid dose. page 4, line 1 - This sentence is true but why would the children have the same radioiodine burden as the adults? line 3 - Perhaps negligible compared with Rongelap, but about compared with background? line 5 - Visit of what Japanese? clarification. \Jhen? Where? The whole item b needs line 10 - Clarify item c! line 12 - This says that if you explain radiation all fear and rumors will disappear. Item d needs help also. line 14 - Communications between atolls? Item e is too incomplete for the uninformed reader. For example, what problems at Bikini? Also, it is not clear in any of this whether you are talking about 1954 after the Bravo shot, or at some specific time afterward. !