=) DRAFT , o. Heo? HER The purpose of this report is to present comparative data on Bikini and New York plutonium pathways to man now available from the recent LLL 1975 Bikini survey 3, 4, >and other studies. Although a comparison of the pathways is not sufficient to clarify issues on plutonium concentrations in body tissues or excretions, it does show that a Bikini population is exposed to higher plutonium levels through dietary and inhalation pathways than a New York population. We acknowledge that the excretion rates of plutonium and the quantities excreted may differ significantly depending upon routes of entry into the body and that the assessment of these rates and quantities is further comp]icated by dissimilar physico-chemical -forms of plutonium in the environment. We suggest that- differences in concentrations in various pathways could account for the relative difference in urinary levels presently found for the two populations. Computed annual plutonium urinary concentrations, “however, are very different than reported values® from New York and Bikini. Several interpretations are proposed for this noted discrepancy. . Furthermore, if the concentrations found in pathways are directly related to the concentrations excreted, then the urine plutonium levels will, with time, become increasingly higher and differ even more from future control samples from New York as the Bikinians rely increasingly on dietary components From their atoll. | PATHWAY ANALYSIS ~ Inhalation Pathway ; The contribution from the inhalation pathway to plutonium concentration in urine, especially at Bikini, is very hard to quantify. In addition to the different activity levels from fallout present in the air at Bikini and New e York, resuspension processes that contpibute airborne plutonium at New - P 9009717 . |