Although the data indieates thar ane 1376, body purdous did not
increase between April and September 1978, ti"

~

1).

2.3 Thee

the body burdens would not have increased when new dietary items like
pandanus and breadfruit became available for daily consumption.
Furthermore, while the population may have been at equilibrium
with their April-September dietary uptake, individuals within the
population may not have been in equilibrium.

This is apparent in the

adult male 1376, body burden data where two individuals showed no
decline in activity between the April 1978 and January 1979 whole
body count.

In one case, the individual was present on Bikini for

only 5 months prior to the April 1978 count.

This places the

individual at approximately 60% of his equilibrium body burden value.
In the second case, there seems to be‘no clear explanation for the
lack of any reduction in the body burden.

Several possible explana-

tions include
1.

the individual may have lived away from Bikini prior to the April

count; hence, equilibrium was not established at the time of
counting, or

2.

the individual changed his diet pattern between April and Septem-

ber.

These deviations from the norm do not alter the conclusion that
equilibrium or near equilibrium had been reached for the population
as a whole for
mean value.

137

Cs.

Indeed, they illustrate variations about a.

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