- 30 the general population the permissible level is 100
strontium units;

i.e.,

the amount of radioactivity from

Sr9° in the diet should not exceed the ratio of 100 micro-

microcuries (P20| disintegrations per minute) of Sr9° for
each gram of calcium.

Often the strontium units that are

determined for single items in the diet are used as the
eriteria for hazard,

but more properly the strontium units

should be determined from the Sr9° and calcium in the entire diet.

Sr9° has been used here as an example only,

because it will be shown later that very little Sr9° is
found in marine organisms.
The MPC values for the radioisotopes listed in
Tables I and VI vary by a large factor,

but the range in

values for the 240 isotopes in Handbook 69 is even greater,
one million.

This large range in MPC values is important

to note because it is obvious that an evaluation of hazard
cannot be based solely on the amount of radioactivity in
the sample without chance of a great error.

Proper evalu-

ation of hazard depends upon the determination of the
amount of radioactivity as well as the identification of
the radioisotopes in the sample.
A concept of hazard is sometimes created,

psycho-

Select target paragraph3