Table 1.
Percent of persons in Marshallese populations
having thyroid nodules (1979).
Age <18 in 1954*
No,
Z with
nodules
4.8
2.4
44
79
15.9
11.4
4.5
1.3
0.7
0.2
115
11.3
0.9
103
102
3.9
1.0
1.0
0.0
59
90
6.8
4.4
0.0
0.0
1193
/ 1.2
292
8.2
0.7
Group
No.
2 with
nodules
42
85
52.4
9.4
553
435
2 with
carcinoma
Age >18 in 1954
& with
carcinoma
Exposed in 1954
Rongelap
ucirik
kk
Comparison populations
Rongelap
Utirik
Wot je
Likiep
ALL
1.4
0.2
0.25
38
7.9
2.6 (1 case)
*The comparison populations include children not yet born in 1954.
prevalence not subtracted from exposed estimates.
**Includes 19 people exposed on Ailingnae.
Unexposed
from natural radiation might have been subtracted from the above estimates.
Exposure to natural radiation during the years the people were away from their
home island was not added to the above doses since comparisons are to be made
with unexposed population statistics, in which such exposure is inherent.
Table 3 shows the expected percentage of persons with thyroid nodules
and cancer dee to exposure to residual radiation on Rongelap and Utirik.
Esti-
mates are calculated for the highest exposure doses assuming continuous habitation on the islands (half-time habitation for children). The table shows that
the percentage of people with thyroid nodules and cancer would not be detectable in a population this size and would be far below the spontaneous incidence. The data presented are probably overestimates in view of the factors
discussed above.
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