instances, counterproductive in explaining the nature uf radiation and the effects cf the residual radioactive contamination on human Leech. THOS@ DOTKE Rare 22a ancitectrve even cthoush wrift)en in Marshallese ani? English and clearly aimed at a lay audience. Most Marshallese simply cannot understand the text. Mcrecver, the preneer -- perhars presented this way in an effort to simplify the e@ -~- tends to mask the variability of the data and its unainties, making the results misleading. “ith regqard to the second area, the US medical surveillance program cecnducted by Brookhaven National Laboratory under DOE contract is a narrowly focused research effort to identify the late effects cr radiation in the most heavily exposed Marshallese people. The treatment by the US of radiation induced health effects and compencation for these effects have been largely but not totally limited to thow effects which have been clearly identified by the surveillance rregram as being radiation induced, mainly, thyroid abnormalities among those most heavily exposed to the fallout from the Bravo test. Health effects that have not been statistically linked to radiation in the Marshallese population under study are generally not created -- exceptions have been made but generally these have not been in accord with Brookhaven's contract with DOE -- and the Victims are not compensated. In effect, the burden of proof lies not with the US to demonstrate the disease is not radiation induced, -it with the victim to demonstrate that it was. 71.8 US Government -- and perhaps the United Nations -- should consider whether the medical surveillance program should be so narrowly “S+fined; whether the people in the surveillance program who have heen categorized as “unexposed controls" should be so categorized; and whether the level of compensation and the people who qualify for it are appropriately defined. Nearly everyone with whom we spoke felt that the Marshall Islands has serious, unique health problems and inadequate care (the lack of health care facilities is obvious even to the casual observer); that ail of the people should be given comprehensive health care regardless of whether they have been categorized as “exposed” or “unexposed"; that the new Marshall quate capacity to do this; Islands Government does not have and that it is the responsibility of ade- the US government not just to give funding, but to ensure by all reasonable means that such care is made available. Moreover, a Marshalls government-endorsed independent medical survey miqht be helpful in moving more decisively in this direction. There is widespread distrust by Marshallese of US scientists involved in radiation monitoring and health surveillance programs. Among the Marshallese who are participants in the Brookhaven surveillance program some have even said, "the Marshallese are being used as ‘guinea pigs', "and that the fallout from the 1954 Bravo ast was not an accident."Unfortunately the scientists working today are forced to carry em@ the baggage of mistakes and changes in policy accumulated over the past 37 years. Weheard ulterior motives attributed to the DOE's educations efforts regarding residual radiation. Some charge that scientists are giving conflicting messages. -3-