UNITED STATES
ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20545
OR 7E9
October ll, 1965
Ky)
MEMORANDUM FOR CHAIRMAN SEABORG _}
10ff 3/<J
COMMISSIONER PALFREY
COMMISSIONER RAMEY
COMMISSIONER TAPE
THROUGH GENERAL nanacERFA
SUBJECT:
J
RECENT INFORMATION ON THYROID DISEASE IN THE
MARSHALLESE ISLANDS
Dr. Robert A. Conard of the Medical Department, Brookhaven National
Laboratory, has just returned from an interim visit to the Marshall
Islands to check on possible further development of thyroid abnormalities in the Rongelapese accidentally exposed to fallout on
March 1, 1954. He was accompanied by Dr. J. E. Rall, a consultant
thyroid specialist of the National Institutes of Health.
It will be recalled that, as of mid-summer, benign nodules had been
found in a total of five adolescents exposed at ages of two to seven
years; one adult female, forty-one years old, had been found to have
a malignant nodule,
All successfully underwent surgery for removal
of the abnormal tissue. Attached is a copy of our July 12, 1965,
memorandum to you describing the successful surgery for two children
During the current August examination, nodules were found in three
additional adolescents and two adults. The contours of the thyroids
of two more adolescents, two young adults, and one man approaching
middie age were sufficiently different from normal to cause
Drs, Conard and Rall to describe them as questionable,
Lo
and the adult.
To summarize, there are now eleven of eighty-two Marshallese with
anortesant af Seeneeedefinite abnormalities of their thyroid tissues and five more are
oa
RG
.
.
considered questionably so.
STATUS pay
_ US DOE ARCHIVE
326 US ATOMIC
ENERGY
ByZ
COMMISSION oo.
Collection
_
a4
eo
“olderDuc o¢
-
~STHEN DISEASES”
les
4
esb/Ef
NON-CCRP
O10 CAHRCER Of
& Exper ED CRoups
|