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Publication Laka-library:
A report to the U.S. Congress on the health problems of Rongelap people (1989)

Author	Rosalie Bertell
Date	June 1989
Classification	4.26.4.00/17 (PACIFIC - US TESTING AREA)
Front

TASK OF THE REPORT

This report is a preliminary evaluation of the health problems of the Rongelap 
people relative to the contamination of their air, water, land and food due to 
radioactive debris as a result of the Bravo blast. On March 1, 1954, the U.S. 
exploded a 15 megaton hydrogen bomb (more than 1,200 times as powerful as 
the Hiroshima bomb) without warning people in the inhabited islands downwind 
from the blast. 

The Rongelap people began experiencing severe radiation sickness and were finally 
evacuated to Kwajalein Atoll 72 hours after the atomic test. They remained either 
on Kwajalein or Majuro Atolls until 1957 when their atoll was declared safe for 
habitation. However, the people began to experience health effects again that could 
be related to radiation exposure -- miscarriage, stillbirth, congenital defects in 
children, thyroid cancer and leukemia, together with a general deterioration in 
health.

In 1978 a Department of Energy radiological survey of the Marshalls indicated 
widespread and long-lived radioactive fallout. (See page 5 -- DOE Estimates of 
Radiation Hazards on Various Marshall Island Atolls.) The Rongelap people 
eventually were evacuated from their atoll in 1985.

This study attempts to assist the Rongelap people in making decisions about 
their future.

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