se RU TGERS . HORI THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY SEO JUL 25 PA I: 02 LIVINGSTON COLLEGE « GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ANTHROPOLOGY NEW BRUNSWICK «+ NEW JERSEY 08903 201/932-2598 Ju ly 18 3 1 9 80 Mr. Wallace 0. Green Deputy Under Secretary of International end Territorial Affairs Department of the Interior Office of the Secretary Washineton, BC. 20240 Dear Mr. Green: I have been edvised by Mr. Clifford Sloan, Legislative Assistort for Congressmen Sidney Yates, to forward along the enclosed information concerning the proposed resettlement of Injebi Island in the Marshall I hope this information will vrove to be of some use in making Islands. your decision about the resettlement, and I mst admit that I do not envy your position in having to make a2 determination about this most complex and difficult issue. My involvement with the Marshall Islanders begen in 1975 when I was stationed on Utirik Atoll as a Peace Corvus volunteer. Despite my "official" Peace Corps task of helping to initiate om agricultural co- operative, as well as to teach school on the atoll, I soon realized that the Utirik people had more immediate concerns which stemmed from their irradiation during the BRAVO shot of March 1, 1954. Specifically, the Utirik Council articulated to me their complaints about the Brookhaven Netional Laboratory medicel program in the Marshells, end the Utirik people were becoming increasingly suspicious about the nature of that program. For example, the Utirik people could not understand the logic of a program which spent millions of dollars annually, and which neglected to treat numerous illnesses in their population, notwithstanding that these illnesses were admittedly unrelated to radiation and its effects. A case in point concerns the 30% incidence rate of edult-onset tyne diabetes as diagnosed in the Utirik group by Brookhaven doctors several years previously: the Brookhaven doctors carefully explained that because diabetes was unrelated to rediation, it was “not their responsibility," and consequently the diabetes was left untreated. Moreover, many other cases of illnesses which were allegedly unrelated to radiation--including primary and secondary health care-=went untreated. As a result, the Utirik people began to question the Brookhaven progran for their atoll, end they began wondering whether the program was really intended for their benefit, or perhaps for the benefit of medical science end scientific inquiry.