COVINGTON &

BURLING

Mr.

Wallace O.

Page Six
December 17,

Green

1980

and low levels of radiation exposure, the Government of the
Marshall Islands views as critical to the implementation of
P.L. 96-205 the conduct of medical screening, including
blood analysis and other testing, of people of all of the

Such testing, and the even
atolls of the Marshall Islands.
more critical follow up medical care, are long overdue and

Despite the unjustifiable conclusions stated in
the Loma Linda report regarding the existence of radiation
related health problems in the Marshall Islands, many of the
other observations made and conclusions reached in the
report, particularly in the section entitled Four Atoll

Proposal, are extremely sound and echo views previously
expressed by the Government of the Marshall Islands.
We

particularly wish to express our concurrence with the con-

clusion of Loma Linda that the only cost effective, economi-

cally sensible way to implement the health care plan reguired by P.L. 96-205, given the great number of fixed
costs, is to have the health care services which are provided utilized by the entire population in the area serviced, namely the entire population of the Marshall Islands.
In addition to the economic wastefulness of limiting the
available services to some, but not all residents,.we
strongly affirm the conclusion of the Loma Linda School of
Health that denial of available medical services to part of
the Marshallese population would be ethically impermissible

under the guidelines of the medical profession and general

ethical principles.

It remains the position of the Government

of the Marshall Islands that every atoll in the Marshzll

Islands was exposed to radiation from the nuclear weapons

testing program within the meaning of P.L.

96-205 and that

health care made available under that law must be provided

without discrimination to the people of all of the atolls of
the Marshall Islands.
A

The Loma Linda report states on page 2 of the Four
Atoll Proposal section that "[i]t is medically impossible to

distinguish in any particular individual whether a disease
complex or symptom is radiation related or not."
Similarly,
on page 12 of the Health Status section the report states

:

that "[it] is inherently difficult and impractical to dis-

wed

o

go to the heart of the health care program mandated by P.L.
96-205.

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