Mr. Wallace O. Green
July 18, 1980
Page Three
I have enclosed a recent critique of the Bender and Brill
RFnewetak Assessment, which calls into serious question the analysis
and recommendetions contained in that study. This recent critique, .
performed by Dr. Rosalie Bertell of the Ministry of Concermm for Public
Health, chellenges the interpretation of radiological data by Drs.
Sender and Brill, and Dr. Bertell suggests prudence in considering the
praposed resettlement of Mijebi.
o-
fnother critique (also enclosed) by Dr. Karl Z. Norgan raises very
serious questions about the dose assessment calculations of Drs. Bender
and Brill, and on the basis of his analysis of the Bender-EPrill study,
Dr. Morgan seems to suggest that their study is inadequate for making
a determination about the proposed resettlement of Mmijebi.
In all honesty, I do indeed favor the resettlement of mijebi, but
only on the condition that another assessment of the potential health
YFisks be commissioned by truly independent and non-governmental radiation
experts having no connection with the United States Governnent. The
Bender-Brill assessment has been criticized by well-respected radiation
experts, and as competent as these two researchers may be, they present
us with an inherent conflict of interest:
as you may kmow, both Bender
and Brill are employees of Brookhaven Nationel Laboratory, end there is
an inherent corflict of interest when Government researchers assess
Government data.
AS an alternative, I propose that ea group of truly independent
radiation experts be allowed to survey Mmewetak end Mjebi, as well
as all of the Northern Mershall Islands which were exposed to fallout
during the testing program. I have in mind several radiation experts
and doctors from an independent organization kmown as "Physiciens for
Social Responsibility" (PSR), which is based in Boston, and which has
a membership of more than 1,500 physicians and scientists in the United
States. I have been in recent communication with members of that
organization, and I am told that PSE is very interested in doing an
independent survey of the Marshall Islands, and in making recommendations
based upon such a survey.
Such an indevendent survey and assessment may ceuse a slight delay
in the Enjebi resettlement, but I do maintain that an additional six
months or so is really an infinitesimal period when contrasted with the’
33 years of exile already experienced by the Injebi people.
Such a
survey will go a long way to attain some degree of objectivity in the
Marshalls, and it may be a wey out of the "nuclear quagmire" which has
caused much in-fighting between various Government agencies involved with
the Marshall Islands, as well as the internal conflicts between the new
Marshell Islands Government and the people of mewetak. For me, such a
survey by independent radiation experts seems like an obvious solution
at the present time, and we can only benefit from another point of view