. . °| . si! fi rs oe Sh ayoo Dis ee a PWN (the concrete used for the cistern construction was Tocally derived) or, alternatively, from resuspended airborne labeled particles accumulated on _the drainage surface of the roofs and washed into the cisterns with the next rain. If the latter mechanism is correct, resuspension processes contribute plutonium not only to the inhalation pathway but to the ingestion pathway as well. ca Bennett’ has recently published “data on fallout 239,240 Pu in 1972 dietary components in New York that included from 1973 a mean tap water concentration of 0.3 pCi/z. Other data appropriate for comparative purposes are fallout levels in untreated surface water of theGreat Lakes. 12, 13 These data are summarized in Table 2 along with the mean and range of plutonium concentrations | jn cistern and ground water from Bikini. Assuming that water consumption _ rates for individuals at Bikini and New York are similar, there can be little " question that Bikinians experience @ higher plutonium body burden from cistern or ground water ingestion than populations in New York. He assume here, of course, that Bikini Island water is the only availablé source for the present population. It follows that urine levels in the Bikini population would exceed those in a New York population even if this were the only pathway | involved with al] other pathways contributing similar levels of Pu to the blood stream at both locations. | Terrestrial Food Products The diet for the people on Bikini Island consists of foods imported from the United States and foods grown and obtained locally from Bikini — Atoll. The imported foods, on the avérage, should contain fallout levels ae