3705 AND sr RETENTION FROM RONGELAP FOODS
147
Table 1— INTAKE DATA FOR *Sr AND 8'Cs IN
RONGELAP FOOD, JULY 2 TO 8, 1963
—
Intake for seven-day period
Food item
Pandanus
Coconut milk
Coconut meat
Total intake
Average intake per
day
Picocuries of ®*Sr per
gram of calcium
Sr, pe 8%Cs, pec Calcium, g
4,379
56
48
57,327
5,656
2,824
0.992
0.329
0.460
4,483
65,807
1.781
640
9,401
0.254
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 normaldiet, but later in
the study the effect of the normal diet on the excretion rates became
increasingly important. In retrospect, it was unfortunate that the
normal diet of the subject was not measured because the Sr and
87Cs levels in foods were increasing during this period.
The “Sr and the '’cs levels found in the urinary and the fecal
collections 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 normaldiet
was not known, the urinary and fecal calcium excretion data are difficult 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 calcium reflects a very high absorption.
In Fig. 1 the "Cs excretion via the urine and the fecesis plotted.
The smoothed 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 '*"Cs ingested was not absorbed.
Neither the urinary nor the fecal excretion rate fell to preexperiment.
levels at the end of 190 days. This was probably due to the increase
in the normaldiet '°’Cs which took place during this period.
The excretion pattern of Sr as shownin Fig. 2 contrasts markedly
with that of '*’Cs. The fact that the majority of the ingested Sr was
not absorbed by the body is evidenced by the high fecal excretion levels
that were observed almost immediately following the consumption of