gmail mmbers of unexposed people, it does not appear that this number is
excessively high.
6. Other findings common to both exposed and unexposed Marshallese.
a. Nutrition.
The diet of the Rongelap people is extremely
limited in variety although the caloric intake appears to be adequate.
They
appear to maintain satisfactory nutritional status without gross vitamin
deficiency except at the time of the 4 year examinations about 12 children
were found to have mild night blindness.
This defect was corrected with
vitamin A therapy.
b. Diseases.
The paucity of findings associated with degener-
ative diseases in the Marshallese people is striking.
‘hile the population
examined is too smail to permit any valid statistical analysis, the clinical impression is that diseases such as atherosclerosis and hypertension
ace considerably less common and of less severity than in a comparabie
group of our population.
Hlectrocardiographic tracings revealed a low
incidence of positive findings and the general age appearance of the trace
ings is younger than would be expected.
This is in contrast to the general
impression that these people age more quickly and possibly have a shorter
life span.
discussion.
No cases of malignancy have been seen in the populations under
There has been a general feeling that conditions such as
peptic ulcer, hernia, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, and vaginal prolapse
are much less common than one might anticipate in examining a random group
of people of similar age in our society.
the high incidence of kyphoscoliosis.
One interesting finding has been
The cause is not apparent.
Skin
infections, particularly with tenia versicolor and impetigenous lesions
in children, have been quite prevalent though dermatophytosis of the feet
has been of low incidence.
Extensive dental caries was commonly found.
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