DIET
The estimated average diet used in the dose assessment
is a
very
critical
parameter--doses will correspond directly with the ingested activity, which is directly
related to the quantity of locally grown food that is consumed.
Therefore, an accurate
estimate of the average daily consumption rate of each food item is important.
Because we have been unable to obtain information on the dietary habits of the
people at all of the atolls, the diets used in this dose assessment are those recently
developed from the MLSC survey conducted of the Enewetak people on Ujelang Atoll and
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from the BNL surveys at Rongelap, Utirik, and Ailuk. More detailed discussions of the
MLSC survey can be found in Refs. 4 and 5 and a discussion of the BNL survey appears in
Ref. 20.
Briefly, in the MLSC survey there were 144 persons, approximately 25% of the
Ujelang population, who were interviewed.
Two females failed to complete the dietary
questionnaire. The breakdown by age group wasas follows:
36 adult males,
36 adult females,
19 children 12 through 17 y of age,
37 children 4 through I! y of age, and
{6 children 0 through 3 y of age.
Some people were away from the atoll during the interview, so selection was limited
to those households where several people were available. The households were selected at
random from the available pool.
Data on the dietary preferences of the Enewetak people were provided to LLNL in
three parts: (1) household survey results for the Ujelang population, (2) individual medical
and diet (IMD) survey results for 144 persons, and (3) a memorandum from Michael
Pritchard of the MLSC./?
According to Pritchard, "the household survey met three
major needs: it provided in descriptive fashion an account of the eating habits for the
entire population of Ujelang; it provided data on certain special diets for certain types of
individuals such as pregnant women; and served as a census document for locating
individuals for the IMD survey."
The completed IMD questionnaires provided, when
known, each individual's name, age, sex, height, weight, sickness frequency, prior medical
treatment, x-ray history, radiation therapy history, parental data, and preference for
various local and imported foods for conditions where imported foods were both available
and unavailable.
Consumed quantities of each food item preferred were expressed in
volume equivalents of a 12-oz beverage can per day, week, and month.
19
Pritchard's