FORT nag ® fan “o an . : no betsEE£6503 Eatenneha: Mas we RarRN A bee . . ae at av . oe te Sh wientin a Ne ON ce Eb tk nad de be ee Meee beef a -50Although accurate determinations of levels of fission and sum- non-fission products have been made for only a few samples, marized above, the gamma spectrum survey studies indicate a wide - spread distribution of the non-fisston Lsotopes in the contaminated area. The distribution is due, in part at least, to the uptake of the non-fission radioisotopes by plankton, the organisms that comprise the base of the food chain cycle. Not only are the non-fission products present in plankton samples from Eniwetok and Bikini lagoons, but they are present also in samples collected in the open sea several hundred miles west of ‘the test atolls (see also Seymour et al., 1957). The absolute levels of the different radilolsotopes in the organs and tissues of the marine animals of the contaminated area are of interest, especially with regard to the possible utilization of the animals for food by humans. The levels of radioisotopes reported in the present work cannot, however, be used directly for health safety consideration since the samples under study are not representative of the average values for the food organisms in the region, However, in the absence of a better comparative standard, the levels of the different Lsotopes in the four biological samples described in this paper may be compared with the maximum permissible concentrations (MPC)* for water as follows: * The MPC for water cannot be used directly for food items unless the dilet of the individual under consideration 1s known . ,Ty oe wy >