401788 United S Department of the Interior OFPECE OF THE SLCRETARY yo WASHINGTON, D.C. 26249 Honorable Adrian P. Winkel High Commissioner JUL nl [Vos 00 4 0 1973 Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands Saipan, Mariana Islands 96950 Dear Mr. Winkel: BEST COPY AVAILABLE On July 6, 1979, Dr. Bruce Wachhnolz, Coordinator for Marshall Islands radiological matters, DOE, and Dr. Hugh Pratt of Brookhaven National Laboratory met with me, Deputy Director George Milner and John E. deYoung with respect to the proposed medical survey of the people of Likiep Atol}. You will recall that this proposed survey was mentioned in my June 26 letter to you on the allegations that certain files containing material relating to the Rongelap and Utirik exposure groups had been destroyed by the Trust Territory Administration some years ago. c DOE now is working on plans for a medical survey of Likiep Atoll and you will be kept informed of developments. An attempt is being made also to assemble as much in the way of back- ground medical material as possible on the people of the Northern Marshalls. There is very little material as you know. The Navy Department, however, some time in the late 1940's conducted a medical survey of the Trust Territory using, as I recall, a ship named the USS Whitby. This medical survey came to be known as the "Whitby Survey" and John deYoung informs me that copies, at one time, were available in the Office of the Director of Public Health, TTPI. A copy also might have been in the callection that was transferred to the Library of the Congress of Iicronesia some time in the late 1960's. Our files do not seem to have a copy of the "Whitby Report". Could you check with the Bureau of Health Services to determine whether the Report is still on file. If so, could copies be made for us as well as for the Department of Energy. Also at the May 16, 1979, Inter-Agency meeting, Mr. Anton DeBrum stated that there have been a significant number of medical referrals to the Guam Naval Hospital, to Tripler Army Hospital, and to some special clinic in Honolulu, of people of the Northern Marshalls for thyroid abnormalities and cancer. These are not the Rongelap and Utirik exposed individuals or enhyias3 x (Dr. Walter Weyzen, DoE QUI I Yo 3