-8~ . . Batty TE | \) ‘ oo 7 i ‘ wads aN of plutonium similar to those consumed by New Yorkers. i : a 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 ¢ diet from New York. &," t % — MMMM ci ay vi ; ‘