5
doubled because of the influx of relatives who had
come back from other islands to live with them.
These people had been away from Rongelap
Atoll at the time of the accidental exposure. This
group matched reasonably well for age and sex
and was of comparable size. Since the return of
the people to Rongelap, however, this group has
about doubledin size.
Since the people are of the samestock genetically, they are uniquely appropriate to serve as a
comparison population and have, therefore, been
used since 1957.
1961 Survey —
Organization and Procedures
The medical team consisted of six medical
specialists, ive from the United States and one
from the Trust Territory; one dentist from the
Trust Territory; one Marshallese practitioner;
and ten technicians, five from the United States
and five from the Trust Territory ( Figure 2).
The medical equipment had been sent out to
the Islands prior to the team’s arrival, and pre-
liminary preparations had been made forlogistic
support of the operauion by the NavvPacific Misse Range group and the Holmes and Narver
contractors at Eniwetok.
Before the survey at Rongelap, the team visited
Kwajalein and Majuro for several davs to carry
out examinations on a number of Rongelap
people who had moved to theseislands.
The Trust Territory provided a cargoship,
the M/V Roque (Figure 5), to transport the team
and to serve as a base of operations. In mid-March
the ship proceeded from Majuro to Eniwetok,
where the medical equipmentand the 21-tonsteel
room for whole-body gamma measurements(Figure 6), which was stored there, were loaded on the
ship. The onloading of the latter was a difficult
and exacting procedure, but was carried outremarkably smoothly by the Holmes and Narver
personnel. The steel room and a wooden room to
house the electronic equipment were placed in
the cargo hold of the ship, and wooden stairs were
installed for access into the hold.
On completion of loading theship, refueling,
and taking on fresh water, the team boardedthe.
ship and proceeded to Rongelap. The one-day
trip was quite rough, since the ship was heading
into the strong prevailing trade winds, but the
stee] room and equipment remained secure. The
ship dropped anchor about 1000 yards off shore
at Rongelap village.
On arrival, an outrigger canoe camealongside
the ship with the Magistrate of the village, who
came aboard. The objectives of our visit to Rongelap were discussed with him, andit was considered
advisable to hold a village meeting so that the
proposed examinations could be explained to the
people and any questions they might have could
be answered.
During the village meeting, held in the Council
House, the medical examinations to be conducted
and the reasons for them were explained. The
people expressed continued concern about the
effects of fallout on their health, but to no greater
extent than at meetings during past surveys. As
in the past, they claimedthat fish poisoning was
related to the fallout, and said that certain fish
have a black spot in their abdomens, which thev
believe to be due to radioactivity and to cause
sickness in those eating such fish. It was again explained to them that fish poisoning was in no wav
related to the fallout. A new complaint was that
several families had developed inflammation and
blistering of the mouth and upset stomachs from
eating arrowroot. vur which thevfelt was affected
byfallout. It was «xplained that this type of effect
has been noted in other islands when the flour is
not properly prepared. They asked whether coco-
nut crabs could be eaten yet and weretold that
these were still not safe but that continuoustests
would be carried out and that they would be informed when the crabs had reached a low enough
level of contamination. This is the onlyitem in
their diet which they are forbidden to eat. Another
complaint was that the coconuts were small and
that certain changes had been noted in the coconut and pandanustrees which they believed resulted from fallout.
Despite the above complaints the people were
very friendly and cooperated with the examining
team in all aspects of the examination that followed.
EXAMINATION FACILITIES
Whole-body gamma spectroscopy wascarried
out in the cargo hold of the ship. The air-condi-