STUDIES OF 90Sr AND STABLE STRONTIUM
IN DIET AND BONE IN ARGENTINA
D. BENINSON, E. RAMOS, and R. TOUZET
Argentine Comisién Nacional de Energia At6mica, Buenos Aires, Argentina
ABSTRACT
Results of Sr and stable-strontium measurements in bone samples
from children and in foods of the corresponding diets are presented
and discussed. The data show that *Sr/calcium ratios in total diet are
very close to those of the milk level for children during the first year
of life. Typical intakes for very young children in the past three years
in Argentina are on the order of afew picocuries of %Sr and about 1 mg
of natural strontium per day.
Strontium-90 levels in bone of different age groups are presented
from samples for which a detailed diet history has been assembled.
Typical levels in children’s bones are in the order of 1 pc per gram of
calcium. Natural strontium in bone seems to increase slowly with age
from about 0.23 mg per gram of calcium, reaching the adult value of
about 0.4 mg per gram of calcium between the second and third year of
life.
With the use of a rough model and bone and diet data, discrimina-
tion factors for different age periods have been estimated. Estimates
from Sr and stable-strontium data agree adequately and suggest that
strontium is less discriminated against in very young infants than in
older children or adults. This, however, could be of little relevance for
risk estimations if skeletal turnover is rapid in the first years of life.
INTRODUCTION
Among the fission products, %Sr is most relevant as a long-term
potential riak because of its long half-life and metabolic pattern lead850