The major contribution to the terrestrial food chain comes from food such as coconut, breadfruit, Pandanus, etc. Looking specifically at the terrestrial foods, coconut contributes a major share of the dose because of its 137 Cs concentration and the high intake of coconut. 3a a3 a DISTRIBUTION OF DOSES AROUND THE ESTIMATED AVERAGE DOSE % ne) By & aes eH The doses presented herein are calculated using the mean value of the data an available for each parameter in the dose models. For example, model parameters include aA a ih body weight, residence time of radionuclides in the body, radionuclide concentrations in either foods or soil, dietary intake (measured in grams per day), and fractional deposition of radionuclides in body organs or compartments. Data for all of these parameters have a § ed 4 ie Thus, the mean value calculated from the data does not ty represent the midpoint of the distribution but rather falls between the 65th and 70th is log-normal distribution. percentile; that is, for a given parameter approximately 65 to 70% of the data points fall below the mean value. Thus, if the mean values for the parameters are used in the dose models and the data sets are log-normally distributed, the final calculated average doses are also log-normally distributed. For a more detailed discussion of the mathematical evaluation of this problem, see Refs. 4 and 5. The average doses presented here fall at the 68th percentile on the distribution; that is, 68% of the population would be expected to have doses below this value. A dose equal to twice the average falls at the 88th percentile and a dose three times the average falls at the 95th percentile. Thus, 68% of the population of most atolls would have a 30-y integral dose less than those listed in Table 17. Based on this analysis, there is about a 5% chance for a person to receive a dose that is greater than three times the average dose. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS The doses we have presented are calculated from the date of the survey conducted in September of 1978. Because resettlement has not yet occurred at some atolls, the doses for those currently uninhabited atolls will be reduced from those listed in Tables 16 and 17, depending on when resettlement might, if ever, occur. The diets used to determine the daily intake of radionuclides are the most direct data available on the current dietary habits in the northern Marshall Islands (see Tables 3 to 12). Lacking direct dietary data for many of the Marshallese, we elected to calculate 48