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were told the dose of radiation they
received was too low to cause harmful effects.
“Thyroid nodules have been {ncreasing in the Utirik people andthis
LOS ANGELES, CALIF.
TIMES
was quite unpredicted and we had
Mo- 1,000,866
S
geome of the best experts in the United
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
~ whi, 227, 377
tee 44 gap
States,” said Dr. Robert A. Conard,
who has headed the ERDA and ABC
_ USS. Forced to Restudy RadiationPeril
7
BY LARRY PRYOR
The residents of an island in Mi-
”
ener PCR Ye
Times Stall Writer
cronesia that received what was considered a small amount of radiation
afler an H-bomb test in 1954 have
developed a high rate of thyroid dis-
ease and cancer.
The sudden increase, which did not
. become evident unuil about 22 years
after the exposure to fallout, is forcing health physicists in the federal
government te revise theories on
dose rates that lead to adverse human
effects,
Their failure to predict or explain
the cause of the disease has also gen-
erated fear and mistrust among people on tie island, Uuirik Aloll, accord-
ing lo recent reports from the Marsnalt Islands. The islands are part of
the U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific.
Qne seneduled quarterly medical
survey of the Ulirik islanders was
cancealea Jast December and the
American resident physician in Micronesia is being recalled, Tac Times
has learned.
POS sega
eeORAGONPaar
BIKINI
ao
ee
a.
“
ee Eb Be
ey
ODa et UTIANC
medical program-in the Marshall IsJands for 23 years.
"It turns out we were wrong,”
Conard said in an interview, “but we
did it in all sincerity and I’m afraid
thé people have held that a2 gainst me
somewhat.”
Glenn Alcalay, 2 Peace Corps
volunteer who lived on Utirik two
years and returned to California this
summer, said the increase in disease
“has been an amazing psycholovicai
ha ER oN
“RONGERIK
oh ge trauma to these peopie.”
ea?
oe a
One recently reported case of
AILINGNAE | /RONGELAP See
thyroid cancer involved the young
.
me
an
son of an exposed person, ad that
Pacific
Ocean
0
°
50
MILES
100
ROR ITSMC a erentoegmace
‘Let’s .face
ft,
the
RADIOACTIVE CLOUD—After H-bombtest on Bikini, much atten»| U.S
“7.77i of oofed,’
° Sef said
div cfti-
tion was paid to the islands in center but fittle to Utirik, ©
research¢ IVISION,
Times map Teiaetea hene fo BAS
“The people of Ulirik are very distressed and angry as a result of the
radiaticn,’ the chiefs of the atoll
wrote the U.S. Energy Research and
Development Administration
(ERDA), which administers the med ~
iehtFopram in the islands related to
radiaion disease, “The people feel
that (he ERD A program is tit need of
vast changes,”
on
has rail‘sed the possiSility ¢of citther
ERDA and its predecessor, the second-pencration genetic effects or
Atomic energy Commission, had exa- healtn problems from latent radiation.
mined the 158 Utirik residents who
The ERDA health program, which
were exposed ta fatleut on March 1, “vas carried out under contract witht
3954, and laler treated 11 officially the Brookhaven National Laboratory
reported cases of thyreid tumors, in Upton, N.Y., did not include exathree of them malignant.
mination3 of children of exposed perenn iLthe recont develonnisnt ot sons and did not encompass genctic
he tnue problem, tha residents
> offects,
Picase Turn to Pave 28, Col £
“The thesry was put forth that
LVAD