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NEVADA OPERATIONS OFFICE James L. Livcrrnan, Director Division of Biomedical and MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS, BIKINI Enclosed is a copy of a letter to me from Oscar deB rum,District I _ _ . Ad-ministrator of the Marshall Islands with, i n turn, an enclosed memorandum to Mr. deB rum from his representative at Bikini. Mr. deB rum requests that the people resident a t Bikini b e included in Dr. Conard's annual surveys, The next such survey is presently scheduled f o r mid-April, 1976. In view of the pending Bikini lawsuit and of recent allegations and misunderstandings regarding Dr. C onard ' s iMarshall Islands activities, I believe that this request merits careful As set forth in my memorandum to you of October I , 1975, Subject: Brookhaven Program at Bikini, we have for sometime had t o deal with a pervasive misundcrstanding of the purpose and reasons which underly the medical program.From the November 21 memorandum, Acting Distad Rep. to District Adininistrator (enclosure), it appears that this misundcrstanding clearly persists.Note that the wri! c r remeans 01 preventing hazards to health, among those resident a t Bikini. I-IC also attributes t o Dr. Kotrady a stat c ment regarding the :'necessity I read the fourth paragraph of Uiina AIcelce's mc moran dum to Distad de Bruni to s a y that thc pcoplc -a1 Uildni (as distinguished f r o m tlro tions. From pcr son al oljservation, I arn aware that thcsc pcoplc arc:
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2 - badly in need of general medical care,apart entirely from any real o r imagined radiation In the past, wherever the Broolchaven medical team has visited it has, on a purely humanitarian bzsis, attempted t o loolc after the general condition of health of the population - including even those who have had no exposure whatsoevcr. Should this humanitarian service again be extended t o the Bikini people, I recommend that it be made clear to the District Administrator and through him to the counsel for the people of Bikini and the Bikini people themselves, that the program is just that: at the request of the concerned individuals. opportunity to explain the distinction between medical examinations and bio- as say procedures. a voluntary humanitarian service which is being provided We should also take this Dr. Conard infcjrms me that he would be willing t o extend his Spring 1976 vj s it to include a “ sick call” visit to Bikini provided he is invited t o do ‘so by the people themselves. I strongly recommend that every effort b e macle t o do so, subject of course, to concurrence of the Oificc of General Counsel. NV is prepared to support this activity with existing resources and to assist with the accompanying information program. A copy of my interim reply to Mr. de Brurn’is enclosed. nate a subsequent reply with your staff. I R og c r,,$ay, As s jrstan t Man ager
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