RETYPED COPY. January 21, 1982 408 126 Mr. Jonathan Weisgall Ginsburg, Feldman, Weil and Bress 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. Re: 20006 Bikini Resettlement Dear Jonathan: It was indeed a pleasure to meet with you recently so that we could have the opportunity to discuss the outgoing problems in the Marshalis, and in particular Bikini. I too feel strongly about the need for independent scientists to assess the radiological and radiobiological data from Bikini, it is the least we can provide these unfortunate people who have suffered for many decades. . As per your request, I will be most happy to expand upon the issues raised in our conversation. For clarification purposes, I wil] include the questions contained in your letter of January 7, 1982, which will be followed by my responses. "J. Misstatements and errors in the 1980 DOE booklet (‘The Morning of Radiation at Bikini Atol1') that you feel require correction by the Bikinians" independent scientists." Response. This DOE booklet, like the companion booklet for Enewetak, is replete with deceptive and misleading language, all of which tends to downplay and underestimate the potential health risks associated with exposure to low-level radiation. The following statements are representative of those misleading distortions: Page 2: (nae 5) A smal] part of the body located in the throat page 17)" The authors should have pointed out that the thyroid is essential for development and body metabolism, and that its injury led to the many cases of dwarfism and hypo- thyroidism in the Rongelap and Utirik populations. Also, the authors neglected to mention that thyroid disease in the exposed populations has a long latency period lasting a Page 2: many decades. "plutonium - A kind of radioactive atom, and an energy called ‘alpha radiation’ comes from it. Plutonium will not disappear for hundreds and hundreds of years." The authors should have been more honest in pointing out that plutonium has a half-life of 24,000 years. eqs