Me . Thomas S. Dunnire. - 3 - | ° a? 7 opie Since the submission of Mr. Carver's letter, numerous cases of thyroid disease have appeared in the exposed population and a fatal case of leukemia occurred in 1972. Of the 54 Ronzgelap inhabitants who were present on Rongelap Atoll at the time of the test, 21 have developed thyroid tumors; three were malignant...Age was a factor in the incidence ..... among the 19 individuals who were less than ten years of age at the time - = of thyroid disease in that 17 of the 21 cases of thyroid tumors occurred of the test. An additional four cases of thyroid tumors developed among <:- = m . The inhabitents cf Utirik received only small radiation exposures as a result of the tast, The people were evacuated from their Atoll and relocated elsewhere for a few months. However, during the last twenty years, the people of Utirik have felt th hatEhap-erecnritiedto sone compensation because of theix radiation exposure and the forced evacuation from the “Atoll, Although they recognize that the risk and dislecation were mach. less than those of the Rongelapese, the Utirik inhabditents have reesoned by analogy that their eir lesser risk and inconvenience warrant compensation, albeit saeller tian i that provided to the people of Rongelap. Since the ' Ct te oe EE ee It is difficuit to establish a causative relationiship between radiation . exposure and cny single case of leukemia, Nowar.r,.the observations that the individual who ceveloped leukemia was one your old at the time of the thermonuclear test and hadrequires thyroid surgery for tumors before the onset of leukemia are sugsestive of a relationship between the exposure and the leukenia. e PT Tet a Rd wee ee nme Rm 18 Rongelapese of ell ages who happened to be on the neighboring Ailinginae Atoll at the time of the test end wno received a smaller radiation dose. There is no question that radioactive iodine in the fallout was responsid]: for the high incidence of thyroid tumors in the Rongelap inhabditénts, Utirik peopl2 have cooperated with the Brookhaven National Laboratory medical team in medic2l follow-up examinations through the years, the AEC provided to the Trust Territory on June 25, 1974, a sum of $18,212 to be disbursed in equal payments of $116 to each exposed inhabitant or his heirs. The. compensation requested by’the Special Joint’ Committee for the Utirik people would be in eddition to the AEC paymant and would be for inconvenience experienced in relation to the 1954 test. The nature.and amount of compensation previded to the peaple of Rongelap by the Congress uncer P.L, 88-485 was based on the information available at the tine Congressional action was taken on the bills. That information as presented in Mr. Carver's letter included only the minor aad indefinite medical effects observed up to that time, The thyroid tumors and leukemia described ebove were neither evident nor predicted at the tire of Congressional action, The medical developments that have occurred since ce mee cea at eat pp mee ck geebe Gee etER cee mee nee means