Bias AND “Sr RETENTION FROM RONGELAP FOODS
147
Table L— INTAKE DATA FOR %Sr AND 8'Cs IN
RONGELAP FOOD, JULY 2 TO 8, 1963
Intake for seven-day period
Food item
Sr, pe 8%Cs, pe Calcium, g
Pandanus
.
Coconut: milk
Coconut meat
Total intake
Average intake per
day
Picocuries of *"Sr per
gram of calcium
4,379
57,327
5,656
2,824
0.329
0.460
4,483
65,9807
1,781
9,401
0.254
56
48
640
;
0,992
2,517
major portion of the activity of both’ radionuclides. The average "Sr
and “'Cs intake per day from these Rongelap foods was about 20 and
60 times higher, respectively, than from a normal New York City area
diet during this time.’ Initially, the activity from the Rongelap food
essentially masked the contribution from the normal diet, but later in
he study the effect of the normal diet on the excretion rates became
increasingly
normal
important.
In retrospect, it was unfortunate that the
diet of the subject was not measured because the sr and
ICs levels in foods were increasing during this period.
The *Sr and the *’Cs levels found in the urinary and the fecal
coilections are given in Table 2 and are plotted as a function of time
in Figs.
1 and 2.
Calcium measurements were made on the food and
excreta samples, but, since the calcium intake from the normal diet
was not Known, the urinary and fecal calcium excretion data are diificult to
interpret quantitatively.
The average urinary calcium was
170 + 40 mg/day, and the average fecal calcium was 360 = 150 mg/day.
These values do not indicate a metabolic abnormality, although the
low fecal caicium reflects a very high absorption.
In Fig. 1 the ‘70s excretion via the urine and the feces is plotted.
The smcothed curves through the data points were drawn by eye. As
has been observed in other studies,’?-!7 the main means of **"Cs ex-
cretion is urine. Fecal excretion fell off very rapidly, indicating that
only a. relatively small amount of the Was ingested was not absorbed.
Nelther the urinary nor the fecal excretion rate fell to preexperiment
levels at the end of 190 days. This was probably due io the increase
in the normal diet '*’Cs which took place during this period.
The excretion pattern of "Sr as shown in Fig. 2 contrasts markedly
with that of /*'cs. The fact that the majority of the ingested Sr was
absorped by the body is evidenced by the high fecal excretion levels
tuat were observed almost immediately following the consumption of