.

COVINGTON &

BURLING

Mr.

Wallace O.

Page Five

December 17,

Green

1980

Although firm, credible, scientific data is not
now available to definitively determine the existence of
radiation related health effects in the Marshall Islands,
the limited information which has been gathered is profoundly disturbing.
In May of 1979, the Government of the
Marshall Islands presented to the United States the data
gathered from an informal questionnaire answered by many of
the people of Likiep Atoll.
The people reported repeated
incidences of birth defects, thyroid abnormalities and other
health problems of a nature frequently found to be radiation
related.
The United States promised in June of 1979 to send
doctors to provide medical care to these people, but the
doctors still have not arrived.
Similar reports of such
health problems repeatedly are heard throughout the Marshall
Islands.
Moreover, the health statistics included in the

Loma Linda report itself, particularly the death statistics
in Table 4 on page 10 of the Health Status Section of the
report, evidence a great number of deaths from causes frequently linked to radiation exposure.
The Loma Linda report, however, passes over this data without comment.

The Loma Linda report apparently accepts at face

value conclusions reached by Brookhaven National Laboratories
regarding the "normal incidence" of certain diseases in the
Marshall Islands.
These conclusions rely on comparisons
made between some of the people of Rongelap and a supposed
“control population" of other Rongelap people and Marshallese
people of other atolls.
As the Government of the Marshall *
Islands previously has pointed out, the concept of a control
population is wholly inappropriate within the Marshall
Islands, where all atolls received exposure to radiation
from the weapons testing program and where people and food
stuffs from the more heavily exposed areas have travelled
throughout the Marshall Islands.
The Loma Linda report
states this problem quite well on page 12 of the Health
Status section, but fails to address
the’ linkage between the
lack of a viable control population and the invalidity of
conclusions, predicated on the false concept of a control
group, reached in much of the existing learning.
In view of the radiation exposure received by the

entire Marshall Islands,

in varying levels,

as a result of

the nuclear weapons testing program, and the known and
suspected,

long and short term health effects of both high

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