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Cormnittee on Interior and Insular .%?~.irs This is in response of my acaff foz AEC The report provides Briefly stated, the report requests the foikwi.qj cy~~> of compensation: Payments of $50,000 each co che Lxo2he;-anG ~Lc”,e,:c< che deceased BEST COPY AVAILABLE
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,. It is well known that radwcion injury Gay give rise to Lumor development after a period of ~i-iy years. The ina<equzcy of the perioti of observation until 1963 for the occurrence or detection of such late =:iects was expressed Secretary of the Interior, co Hon. Wayne N. Aspinall, Chail-n, committee on Interior and Insuiar Affairs, House of Representatives. The letter is included in H.It. Report No. 110, pare of the legislative ;-.i.s~oryof In the period imnediacely following the failouz, many ~i Che Rongelapese were affected by nausea and itching, a stibsta~tial number,, sustained temporary s!cir.burns, ma somewhaz less CC.LI.7-.:.;..:~~scained SO= degree of ioss oi hair, ZISO rempcrsly. h SGCR c<-tiesChere remain some scarring ana pigment change az ci>eformer s~ce of deeper burns but no evidence of cancerous change in these -~ars krs been noted. In all of the “Kongelapese there was sign.ifici~ntte~,rsssi.or, instances where the counes zre lower than in compaza”ble unaffected ment in young chilciztinWC.O t:ere cffeczeci by che ialiou~ may have been retarded, and also that Lheze is a possibility of a somewhat greater incidence of miscarriages and stillbirths among che exposed women. Neither sufficient tima has elapsed nor sufficient knowledge acquired to permit positive conclusions to be drawn as to the long-rage effect of the fallout on the Rongelapese.
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Since the submission of Mr. Carverls Ietcer, numerous cases of thy-rcid disease have appeared in the exposed population and a fatal case of leukemia occurred in 1972. Of the 64 Rongeiap inhabitants who were present on Rmgelap Atoll at the time of the test, 21 have developed thyroid tumors; three were malignant. Age was a factor in the incidence of thpoid disease in that 17 of the 21 cases of thyroid tumors occurred among the 19 individuals who were less than ten years of age at the time of the test. An additional four czses of thyroid tumors developed among 18 Rongelapese of all ages w’ho happeaed to be on the neighboring Aiiingir.ae Atoll at the time of the test z~tiwho received a smaller radiation 2,ace. There is no question that radioactive iodine in the fallout was respcrlsible for the high incidence of thyroid ~umors in the Rongelap inhabitants. It is difficult to establish a csusative relationship between radiation exposure and any single case of ieu’keuiia; However, the obsenations that the individual who developed leukemia was one year old at the time of the thermonuclear test and had required thyroid surgery for tumors before the onset of leuketia are suggestive of a relationship between the exposure and The in!.!.abitantsof Utirik received only small radiation exposures as a result of the test. The people were evacuated from their Atoll and relocate~i elsewhere for a few months. However, during the last <wenty years, the people of Utirik have felt that they are entitled to some compensation because of their radiation exposure and the forced evacuation f~om thei~ Atoll . Although they recognize that the risk and dislocation were m:.ch ‘~.:: than those of the Rongelapese, the Utirik inhabitants have reasoned Jy analogy that their lesser risk and inconvenience warrant compensation, albeit smaller than that provided to the people of Rongelap. Since tne Utirik people have cooperated with the Brookhavei~ h]~tio~’al Laboratory .~:~<. to the Trust Territory on June 25, 1974, a sum of $18,21L co oe ciisb~z~<a in equal payments of $116 to each exposed inhabitant or his heirs. “lFLe . compensation requested by tuneSpecial Joint Committee ior tune“J~i=i”,<~P’ ~uld be in addition to the AEC paywnt and would be for inco~’venience experienced in relation to the 1954 test. as presented in Mr. Caner’s ietter inciuded only the minor and indeiir,ice medical effects observed up to that time. The thyroid tumors and leukemia described above were neither evident nor predicted at the time of Congressional action. The medical developments that have occurred since
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the statute was passed justify favorable consideration of further compensation to those particular individuals wt,o have experienced significant medical damage related to their radiation exposure. In view of the above, the AEC recommends the following: The heirs (parents) of the leukemia patient should receive additional The exposed Rongelap inhabitants who have had z“~yroia operations for radiation-related disease should receive additional compensation. Consideration should be given to providing some compensation co the Utirik inhabitants in addition to the AEC payment Oa .june 25, 1974. No position is taken relative to funds for commmity purposes since such rotters more properly fall within che puxwiew of the Department of the Interior rather than the Atomic Energy Commission. We assume that additional compensation, if authorized by the Congress, would be provided through a mechanism similar to that employed in P.L. 88-485, namely, through disbursement of specially appropriated funds by the Secretary of the Interior. Therefore, the precise amount of any additional compensation is not considered an appropriate matter for AEC conxnent and is not addressed in this letter. If we may be of assistance in providing the Committee witn additional inforuution, especially with respect to scientific $indings in ine exposes Marshallese population , we will be pleased tG furnish it. Di ision of Biomedical and