Editing Rongelap Atoll (section)

===Failed return to the atoll===

In 1957, three years later, the United States government declared the area 'clean and safe' and allowed the islanders to return,<ref>{{Citation|last=McCool |first=Woodford C. |publication-date=1957-02-06 |title=Return of Rongelapese to their Home Island - Note by the Secretary |publisher=United States Atomic Energy Commission |url=http://worf.eh.doe.gov/ihp/chron/A43.PDF |access-date=2007-11-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070925185914/http://worf.eh.doe.gov/ihp/chron/A43.PDF |archive-date=September 25, 2007 }}</ref> though they were told to stick to canned foods and avoid the northern islets of the atoll.<ref name="green"/> US scientists noted that "The habitation of these people on the island will afford most valuable ecological radiation data on human beings."<ref>{{Cite journal |last= Johnson |first=Giff |date= February 1979 |title= Micronesia: America's 'strategic' trust |journal= The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists|volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=15|doi=10.1080/00963402.1979.11458582 |bibcode=1979BuAtS..35b..10J }}</ref> Contrary to the US government's assurances, evidence of continued contamination mounted, as many residents developed thyroid-tumors,<ref name="green"/><ref name=gid/> and many children died of [[leukemia]].<ref name=gid/> Rates of miscarriages and stillbirths in Rongelap were twice the rate of unexposed women in the Marshall Islands.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=De Ishtar|first=Zohl|author-link=Zohl de Ishtar|date=May 2003|title=Poisoned Lives, Contaminated Lands: Marshall Islanders Are Paying a High Price for the United States Nuclear Arsenal|url=https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1442&context=sjsj|journal=Seattle Journal for Social Justice|volume=2|issue=1|pages=291}}</ref> The magistrate of Rongelap, [[John Anjain]], whose own son died of leukemia, appealed for international help, without significant response.