heen. ” S te ; i, Bye) Reeiaalateil Ca Figure 6. Children participating in gamesat timeoffeast. to rik dle rut ith di- the age tirls Che suggested. The data on physical growth of children (mea- sured primarily in terms of stature and body P23 cik CG 37 4, studies consisted ofa briefinterval history, routine physical examination, roentgenogramsoftheleft hand and wrist, and body measurements. In 1967 and 1969, all children in the exposed and control categories as well as children born to exposed and unexposed parents were examined. In 1968, only the children in the Rongelap and Ailingnae exposed groups were seen. In 1969, Utirik exposed persons under20 years ofage were included. During these examinations, special attention was directed to the palpatory findings in the thyroid glands. The significant findings for each of the three years are summarized inTable 8. Thyroid-related abnormalities are discussed in a subsequentsection of this report. The pattern andintensity of the recorded abnormalities reflected primarily the expected fluctuations related to such factors as age, weather, habits, activities, community health problems, and normal developmentalvariations. With the exception of thyroid lesions and growth retardation, no correlation between pediatricfindings and exposureto fallout radiation could be weight) examinedin 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969 are tabulated in Appendix 1. Growth data from prior examinations have already been published.1° Statistical analyses have been done on the data obtained through 1967. The results showed no markeddeviationsfrom the trends noted previously.!2-14 Comparison of median statures and weights by age showed nostatistically signifi- cant differences between the exposed and control groups for either boys (Figures 7 and 8) or girls (Figures 9 and 10). However, separate analysis of the groupof children under6 years of age at time of exposureto fallout radiation shows a significant retardation in statural growth persisting among the boys (Figure 11) but not amongthegirls ( Figure 12). The growth curves for stature and body weight of children born to exposed parent(s) showed no significant difference from those of children born to unexposed parents (Figures 13 and 14). The analysis of skeletal age data through 1967 also showed nostatistically significant difference between the exposed and control groupsof children (Figures 15 and 16). Skeletal ages were estimated from roentgenogramsof the left hand and wrist by the technique of Greulich and Pyle.1°