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DR. JOSEPH WAGONER, S.D.Hyg.
December 14, 1980
Loma Linda University School of Health submitted to DOI a
shall Islandshealth care plan.
Mar-
While that plan does address the
general health care needs of the people of the Marshall Islands,
it does not positively address the needs of those people with
regard to illnesses which are kiuown to be associated with radi-
ation.
As such, the plan for the people of the Marshall Islands
should be enlarged to include health care activities specifically
directed toward carcinogenic, genetic and reproductive effects.
There can be little doubt that under a wide variety of circumstances, ionizing radiation is carcinogenic and leukemogenic in
humans.
This conclusion is attested to by numerous epidemiologic
studies conducted among human populations experiencing a diver-
sity of exposure to radiation.
Epidemiologic studies of uranium
minors exposed to alpha and gamma radiation have demonstrated a
large excess of bronchogenic cancer.
In addition, these studies
have demonstrated a preponderance of a specific histologic type
of cancer, i.e.,
small cell undifferentiated carcinoma, when
compared to the general population.
Epidemiologic studies of the
survivors of the atomic-bomb explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki
provide reliable data on the carcinogenic effects of whole body
exposure to gamma rays and neutrons.
Among those individuals,
an excess of lung, thyroid and breast cancer, as well as leukemia,
has been demonstrated.
This excess of leukemia was shown to be
predominantly of the myelogenous and granulocytic type.
Conclu-