Doctors treating
By Susan Kreifels
islanders exposed
to nuclear test
Star-BulletinDr. Tom Jack of the Marshall Islands wasn't born when winds shifted during a U.S. nuclear bomb test on Bikini Atoll in 1954, exposing people to radiation.
But Jack believes the radiation left from the Cold War weapons race still plagues his home islands and future generations of Marshallese, who suffer a higher than normal incidence of thyroid cancer.
"I worry, but where can I go?" Jack said in Honolulu yesterday.
He and Marshallese Dr. Marie Lanwi are helping islanders who were exposed to the thermonuclear "Bravo" test. The two doctors are here for a week to familiarize themselves with Straub Clinic & Hospital, which was awarded a five-year, $5.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to provide care and monitoring of the exposed Marshallese still living.
They staff two medical clinics supported by the grant -- one in Majuro, the capital of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Kwajalein, home to a U.S. missile-tracking station.
The clinics serve 138 remaining islanders of about 600 who lived on Rongelap and Utirik atolls, exposed to radiation in 1954. They also serve 100 islanders who were not there during the tests but came later.
Radiation is still being cleaned up on Rongelap to prepare for the return of islanders. They have already returned to Utirik.
The United States has committed funding to care for the exposed islanders. Before a medical team visited the Marshalls every six months. Under the current grant, resident doctors from the University of Hawaii will rotate to the clinics every four weeks and physicians from UH and Straub will be there part of the time as well. Cancer patients will be treated at Straub.
Specialty medical and surgical consultations will also be provided through telemedicine links.
Dr. Henry Preston, medical director of Straub's Pacific Island Medical Services, said the clinics will provide continuity in the diagnosis and treatment of the exposed islanders. There will also be more emphasis on prevention, with patients receiving regular screening for prostrate, breast, cervical and other cancers.
Preston said there is a higher incidence of thyroid cancer among Marshall Islanders, particularly those exposed to nuclear testing, but he did not have specific numbers. The islanders were exposed to 10 times the normal radiation.
Preston, Jack and Lanwi said the islanders connect all diseases they suffer to the radiation, even diabetes, which is unrelated.
Preston said, however, that moving the islanders from their homes after the testing, exposing them to a new environment and diet, could have caused diabetes.
"What is disturbing is that people were displaced from their homes," Preston said. "It was all done in the name of competition dealing with weapons of nuclear war. The people were pawns."
But, Preston adds, "It's in the past. The United States is making efforts to deal with it."
