UNITED STATES
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ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION
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WASHINGTON, D.C.
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MAY
1 2 1967
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Mr. John T. Conway
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Executive Director
Joint Committee on Atomic Energy
Congress of the United States
Dear Mr. Conway:
The following represents the most recent information on the
occurrence of thyroid nodules among the people of Rongelap Island
who were exposed to fallout on March 1, 1954.
Dr. Robert A. Conard
of the Medical Department of the Brookhaven National Laboratory has
returned from the Marshall Islands where he and his team conducted
the latest of the continuing series of medical examinations of
these people.
Our last letter on this subject, dated May 12, 1966, reported a
cumulative total of 16 Marshallese had been found to have thyroid
nodules. Dr. C. L. Dunham also provided the Joint Committee
additional comments regarding this problem at the time of the FY
1968 Authorization Hearings.
The recent survey disclosed one new case with a thyroid nodule.
)
This additional case was in a 17-year old boy who had been away on
an outlying atoll and, consequently, had not been examined for
several years. This brings to 17 the number of diagnosed cases of
nodular thyroids among the 69 survivors of the original exposed
group.
During the latter part of May 1966, five patients were brought from
Rongelap to the Brookhaven Medical Department. After thorough
evaluation they were transferred to the New England Deaconess
Hospital in Boston for subtotal thyroidectomies. All did well and
were returned in June 1966 to Rongelap.
At this time, 11 of the 17 individuals with thyroid nodules have
been treated surgically. These 11, nine children and two adults,
SCAB
23068