Of interest among the twelfth annual medical survey observations was
the absence of thyroid abnormalities in the 40 Utirik children examined who
were of the same ages as the high-ineddence group of exposed children on
Rongelap,
The Utirik children had received considerably less radiation
exposure,
BACKGROUND
Following the detonation of a thermonuclear device on March 1, 1954,
during atmospheric tests in the Pacific Proving Grounds, an unpredicted
shift in winds caused deposition of significant amounts of fallout on four
inhabited atolls east of Bikini.
and Utirik Atolls,
These were Rongelap, Ailinginae, Rongerik
Rongelap received the largest radiation exposure.
Eighty-t--c people cf Pongelap Atoll were accidentally exposed to fallout
radiation where the average whole body exposure was approximately 175 roentgens.
Addittonal amounts of radiation resulted frem absorption of radioiodine in the
thyroid glands,
Since that time the U.S. Atom{c Energy Conmission and the
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islends have sponsored annual medical surveys
of the cxposed people.
The surveys are carried out by a Brookhaven National
Laboratory team, headed by Dr. Robert A. Conard from the Laboratory's Medical
Research Center.
Ii ecdiately after the 1954 exposure the people were evecuated to Kwajalein
Atoll for treatment and were subsequently on Majuro Atoll until 1957 when they
were returned to Pongelap.
On their return to their home atoll the United
States provided them with a new village and other facilities end services
to essist their re-establishment,
cbout 228 persons.
The current population of Rongelap is
Last year Concress appropriated $950,000 as “compassionate
velie£" peyrcnt to the exposed population,
a
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