has been found that plutonium is now being taken up
by the plants and animals in the New Mexico area
after a delay of five
(5)
years.*
The selection of
pu2?9 by food organisms is important in as much as
the permissible amount for humans in food or water is
3.3 d/m/g or cubic centimeter on a continued basis.
Other fission product isotopes supposedly not avail-
able by virtue of insolubility that should be studied
are Ce
£f.
144
,
Pmt47
, and Ru
106 — 5
Soluble fission products such as sr? and cgi35, with
long half lives, are still present at Bikini and Eniwetok.
The very low maximum permissible amount of
sr?° for humans increases the importance of a thorough
survey of the amounts
and locations of this isotope
within the food chains in the contaminated environment.
(The maximum permissible amount of sr?° in the food or
water on a continued basis is 1.8 d/m/g or cubic centimeter.
The total amount of sr?? to be permitted in the
body is 6 millimicrograms.°
U. S. Atomic Energy Commission report, UCLA~108
"Maximum permissible concentrations of radioisotopes in the air,
water and in the human body."
Subcommittee on Internal Dose of
the National Committee on Radiation Protection.
1951.
U. S. Atomic Energy Commission report, AD-325
(C).