CESIUM-137 BODY BURDENS AND THEIR VARIATIONS
IN NORWEGIAN SCHOOL BOYS
AKSEL STR@MME
State Institute for Radiation Hygiene and the Norwegian
Radium Hospital, Oslo, Norway
ABSTRACT
The global distribution of fallout of radionuclides from nuclear-weapon
tests has not been uniform. It has been eSpecially high in Norway;
therefore determinations of the level of fallout have been of particular
interest. As a part of the investigations reported, '°"Cs body burdens
and potassium levels were studied in 22 school boys from one school
in Oslo with a whole-body counter at the Norsk Hydros Institute for
Cancer Research. Examinations of the boys were made in March 1963,
October 1963, March 1964, and October 1964.
BODY BURDENS AND THEIR VARIATIONS
As shown in Table 1, most of the boys (17) were born in 1946. The
case numbers were assigned on the basis of their '’Cs body burden at
the first examination. Number 1 was assigned to the boy with the lowest
body burden; number 22 was assigned to the boy with the highest. These
numbers are maintained throughout this paper.
Figure 1 shows the height and the weight of the boys in March
1963 and October 1964.
Table 2 shows the height and weight of the boys also. The numbers
in parentheses are the case numbers. Note that the average height in
centimeters increased only 1 cm, from 179 to 180 cm. The weight has,
on the average, increased from 67.5 kg to 69 kg. Someof the boys increased in weight only slightly, whereas some gained several kilograms;
weight.
on
the
other hand,
there are also some who decreased in
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