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ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION SUBJECT: RECENT INFOtiTION ON THYROm DISEASE IN THE Dr. Robert A. Conard of the Medical Depar~ent, Brookhaven National Laboratory, has just returned from an interti 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. till, a consultant thyroid specialist of the National Institutes of Health. It will be recalled that, as of mid-s~er, 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 ~derwent surgery for removal of the abnormal tissue. Attached i.aa copy of our July 12, 1965, memorandum to you describing the successful swgery for two children and the adult. 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 yo~g adults* and one man approaching middle age were sufficiently different from normal to cause Drs. Conard and Rail to describe them as questionable. To sumarize, there are now eleven of eighty-two Mrshallese with definite abnormalities of their thyroid tissues and five more are considered questionably so.
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The non-exposed control population continues to be &ee of nodular thyroid disease. This extremely high incidence of th~oid disease in the exposed population must be considered the result of their exposure to fallout. Dr. Conard and his group till return to Rongelap in February 1966. Meanwhile, therapy with synthetic thyroid hormone has been instituted in an effort to control further nodule formation. Surgery is being arranged for the five new cases of nodular thyroid disease. You will be kept informed as this develops further. Obviously, there are many aspects to these findings which will exci~e both medical and lay interests. Division of Biology and Medicine