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of plutonium similar to those consumed by New Yorkers.
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Plutonium
concentrations in the New York diet are abstracted from a report by
Bennett! (see Table 3).
Some recent plutonium data from the June 1975 Bikini Survey” and earlier
data® obtained for terrestrial food items are given in Table 4.
Only upper
plutonium detection limits (with 95% confidence) were available for some
samples because of the limited. sample size that could be obtained from the
existing inventory of food products on the Island.
However, from those
samples where there was sufficient material to obtain a real number (papaya, .
pig muscle), it is clear that the Pu concentrations are twice as high as any
values reported for terrestrially derived food products in the New York diet.
It is not yet clear just how much of the different food products grown
on Bikini Island are actually used in the diet.
However, whatever the use
‘(and there is undoubtedly some) and whatever increased future use there may
be would lead to nigher body burdens and therefore higher urine
concentrations of Pu in the Bikini population over the New York population
fromthe food pathway.
:
| For example, if one assumes an average Pu concentration of 0.6 pCi/kg
fresh weight in all the food products on Bikini Island and a combined intake
ofall foods of 100 g/d or 36.5 kg/y, then the yearly plutonium intake would
be 21.9 pCi compared to the 1.46 pCi (1.6 pCi minus the shellfish and water)
estimated by Bennett? for New York.
Plutonium levels in a diet entirely
derived from Bikini terrestrial foods are 15 times the levels in a. terrestrial
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diet from New York.
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