The illnesses increased. Children suffered from thyroid cancers. Women experienced cancers, miscarriages and still births, and babies were born deformed. Some babies were born looking like jelly-fish. They had no human shape.
Many women are afraid to give birth.
In 1985, after the US ignored their requests to be rehabilitated to a safe island, the Rongelap people relocated themselves, with Greenpeace assistance. They moved their entire community to tiny Mejatto island in Kwajalein Atoll which, although it is not suitable for habitation, provided some refuge. The Rongelap people were concerned for the future of their children living in contaminated islands. They have high levels of plutonium in their blood as a result of their stay on their home island. The Rongelap have joined the Bikinians and Enewetak people as nuclear nomads unable to return home.