tropospheric latitudinally localized world-wide fallout
have occurred from subsequent weapons tests by the Russians
and the Redwing series completed last summer at the Eniwatok
Proving Grounds.

II.
A.

RESEARCH FINDINGS

Amount of Fallout and Expected gr90
Body Burden from Weapons Fired to Date. ~

Since our last report ,2/ further data on the

actual magnitude of fallout in various places in the world

and in various selected spots in the food chain have bee
come available.
We shall summarize the results.
Some
human bona now contains radioactive strontium at levels

of about 1/1000 of maximum permissible concentration

(0.001 MPC; the MPC is 1 microcurie of Sr90 for the standard
man and proportionally less for children and is the maximum permissible ccncentration) in the northern latitudes
where the bombs have been fired and the world-wide tropospheric fallout has occurred.

There is evidence in the

data on human material that age is a factor, e.g., older

_

people having had their calcium deposited prior to the
weapons tests show lower concentrations, though in some
instances exceptions to this rule are te be found.
Lower
levels are found in the Southern Hemisphere where the

major contamination is due solely to the world-wide
stratospheric fallout which in the northern latitudes
of 10°N to 50°N is generally less than one-half or onequarter of the total fallout. The deposition in the
human body seems roughly to parallel the levels of the
total fallout. More data are necessary to fully
validate this point.

At the end of 1955, the total deposition in
the upper midwest of the United States was some 13 mc/mi2

of Sr90. In the spring of 1956, this total rose to about
16 mce/mir.

2/

"Radioactive Strontium Fallout," W. F. Libby, Proc.

Nat. Acad. Sci., &2, 365 (1956).
(more)

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