survey at Ujelang TABLE 8. - Diet comparison of the maximum diet from the MESC and the BNLstudyat Rongelap and(!tirtk. a : — Dhetars item Imports available (gid) Shellfish” Clams Coconut crabs" Domestic meat? Wild birds Eggs" Pandanus Breadfruit Coconut fluid Coconut meat Squash (pumpkin) Arrowroot Papaya eT * Reference 45. 6 Marine crab andlobster. © Includes land crabs. * Bird, chicken, and turtle. 60 female, MLSC surves Vielangce — -—-—— Fish 4 Pork and chicken. Intake fur aduit 42 5.1 8.9 3.1 1 4 il 9 27 142 63 1.2 3.9 7 allah Islands BNI. Marshall Intake fromeurves" ig/d) : Imports anavail able (g/d) 90) 84 to 194 44 13 5 i to to 15 2 0.6 to 2.4 to ——sito «to to to 0 to 9 25 35 18 56 33 93 217 187 2.7 47 14 foal 0.14 to 0.7 to 64 36 430 968 0 0 0.4 44 96 53 421 280 5 12 seeriame se consumed according to the MLSC survey. The Pandanus fruit prepared is nearly double the MLSC consumption value. Fish consumption in the MLSCsurveyis within the range observed by BNL. The intake of squash and papaya is also very similar in the two reports. However, intake of shellfish, clams, coconut crabs, domestic meat, wild birds, breadfruit, and arrowroot is greater in the MLSC survey than in the BNL survey. In the summaryof a survey conducted during July and August 1967 at Majuro Atoll, the average coconut use was reported to be approximately 0.5 coconut per day per person [44]. This included young drinking coconuts, old nuts used for grated meat and pressed for small volumes of milk, and sprouting nuts used for the sweet, soft core. Recent data from Eneu Island shows that an average drinking coconut contains 325 ml, offluid (standard deviation = 125 mI.), so that even if the entire coconut use of 0.5/d were all drinking nuts, the average intake would he about 160 g/d. This is in agreement with the results from the MLSC survey at Ujelang. In evaluating all available data on dietary habits in the Marshall Islands, there are a few general conclusions to be drawn. (1) The dietary intakes used here are based on the most current diet surveys. (2) The dietary habits of a people are atoll specific and one should notarbitrarily generalize from one atoll to another. (3) Thereis still some uncertainty as to what an average diet really is at any atoll. (4) Many factors can affect the average diet over any specific year. (5) Further atoll-specific dietary studies are needed to improve the precision of the dose predictions. Throughout our discussion of diet. and estimated dose, three expressions are used extensively: imports available, imports unavailable, and local foods. Imports-available conditions exist when field ships arrive on schedule and imported andlocal foods are both available. Imports unavailable indicates a condition where there is an absence or greatly reduced availability of imported foods. Local foods is our expression for the locally grown foods of the MLSC and BNL surveys. Under normal conditions, imported foods provide a greater percentage of the diet than do local food items. When imports are unavailable, it is assumed that local food consumption increases and that the intake of halla projected over a lifetime. The daily food intake in grams per day is multiplied by the radionuclide concentrations in the food products to give the average daily intake of radionuclides for the various atolls and islands as input to a‘ are estimated and should be considered maximum estimates or overesti mates.” The diet patterns are divided into three categories representing ity three types of communities. Community A has a maximum availabil income within (living economy of local foods, a highly depressed loca! to provided by selling copra), a low population, andlittle or no ability foods local of ity availabil low a has B ity buy imported food. Commun except fish because of excellent fishing in the area, is overpopulated— resulting in low availability of local foods, and has good supply of imported foods and readily available jobs. Community C has a low availability of local foods and poorfishing, a large government food program, is overpopulated, and has a good supply of imported foods and availability of cash to buy them. The data from the MLSC Survey and from BNL are compared in Table 8. The largest discrepancy between the two surveys is for coconut fluid. The range in the MLSCsurveyis 142 to 217 g/d for the average intake when imported foodsare available and unavailable, respectively. The range in the BNL survey for the average prepared for a household d is 305 g/d for community C to 1025 g/dfor community A. The prepare that than higher 50% to 40 is survey BNL the in coconut meat 61