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Health Physics Pergamon Press 1970. Vol. 18, pp. 127-134. Printed in Northern Ireland
21°Ph AND *°Po IN TISSUES OF SOME ALASKAN RESIDENTS
AS RELATED TO CONSUMPTION OF CARIBOU OR
REINDEER MEAT
ft
R. L. BLANCIIARD and J. B. MOORE*
U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Public Health Service,
Environmental Control Adininistration, Bureau of Radiological Health,
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202, U.S.A.
(Received 17 February 1969; in revisedform 5 May 1969)
Abstract—Concentrations of *!°Pb and 2!9Po in tissues of Alaskans who eat caribou meat are
compared with the concentrations in tissues of individuals whose diets do not include this meat.
The fevels of 2!°Po were significantly higher in those individuals who had caten caribou meat a
short time before death; however, only small differences were observed in the #!°Pb levels
between the two groups.
The concentrations of 249Pb and #!°Po in lichen and in caribou bonesamples which were
collected prior to the advent ofnucleartesting in the arctic were not found todifier significanthy
from the concentrations in similar samples recently collected.
These results indicate that
nuclear fallout has not significantly increased the #°Pb levels in the arctic environment.
INTRODUCTION
ELEVATED levels of the fission products Sr and
137C's exist in certain Alaskan populations that
include caribou meat as a portion of their
diet."-5) These radionuclides enter the arctic
ecosystem as fallout from nuclear detonations
and are accumulated by lichens which are
consuined in large quantities by caribou and
reindeer.’) In addition to Sr and #7Cs,
210Pb and #!°Po have also been observed to be in
high concentrations in lichens and in bones and
some soft tissues of caribou, while in the muscle
of the latter, high levels of *4°Po have been
observed.{@-® For this reason, it has been
suggested that populations who consume a
regular diet of caribou or reindeer meat mayalso
have high body burdens of #°Pb and *°Po,
The latter, being an alpha emitter, is particularly
hazardous in high concentrations with respect to
internal radiation exposure, 9
The body burdenof ’Cs has been measured
extensively throughout the caribou eating populations of Alaksa by whole-body counting techniques employing gamma-spectrometry. S52)
The measurement of the body burden of #4°Pb
and *°Po in this population, however, is
considerably more dilficult. Measurements
must be conducted on autopsy tissue by radiochernical techniques. ‘The diilicult task of
obtaining appropriate specimens is reflected in
the scarcity of reported measurements. HILi
has reported the 7!Po concentrations in 18
samples of human placenta,“ and the 2!’Pb
content
of 3
bone
samples
from
northern
Canada. [In addition, Ho-rzman has reporied
concentrations of 48Pb and 7!Po in 3 placenta
and | blood sample from subjects residing near
Barrow, Alaska.”
As a result of the absence of“Po and #!°Pb
measurements im tissues from the Alaskan
Eskimo, it has been possible only to compute an
approximate body burdenof these nuclides from
either the analyses of caribou meat with an
estimated intake or from urine analyses. From
the latter, BEASLEY and PaLMrrhave estimated
that the average *4°Po body burden ofpeople
living at «Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska is 3.5 n€i.
It has been generally accepted that the source
of the ?!°Pb in the arctic ecosystem, as in other
regions,
* Address: Radiological Engineering Laboratory,
5555 Ridge Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio 45213.
is from
the
decay of atmospheric
222 n.'8-9) Lead atoms so formed return to the
12?
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