SESSION IV DISCUSSION
899
HARDY: Weknow that the Sr levelinthe diet was also increasing,
but 37cs was increasing at a faster rate and was moreclearly reflected
in the excretion values than was “Sr.
VAN MIDDLESWORTH: I would like to ask Dr. Strgmme about
something he had in a reprint he showed me but did not include in his
paper regarding the different muscles of the body containing widely
varying concentrations of cesium. Can you comment on this large difference? I wonder if the muscle cesium/potassium ratio was different.
How do you account for these phenomena?
STROMME: We have studied only one man so far for the paper I
showed you. However, I know that reindeer have been studied very well
in Norway,
cesium
than
and it seems that the active muscles contain much more
the
inactive muscles. I don’t know if this is true for
potassium. The material was too scarce for potassium studies.
HARDY: Mr. Brar, can you or Dr. Gustafson give any reason for
the increase in the '°"Cs bone levels after 20 years of age?
BRAR: No, 1 don’t think we can. We are just trying to find what is
in the bone. We don’t know why it is there. People have not suspected
there would be any cesium in the bone at all, but rather that all of it
would be in tissue. However, Japanese investigators have found some,
and we also have found some.
One of the speakers this morning mentioned that '°"Cs uptake from
the soil was quite small, but still one finds quite a bit of this nuclide
in grains, especially in those which are contained in pods, such as
soybeans. Is there any possibility that cesium is absorbed through the
leaves or stalks? Could someone answer that?
WARD: I am not a plant physiologist, but the answer is that cesium
is very mobile in the plant once it has been absorbed. Presumably absorption occurs largely through foliar absorption. The cesium gets into
the plant system and then could be transferred to the seeds quite
readily.
BENINSON: On the same problem, I think that most of the data
show that cesium levels depend mainly on the current rate of fallout.
However, Dr. Frederickson and others claim that for some soils the
soil-uptake component is important. Probably a good relation can be
found which takes into account both the current year’s fallout and the
average of the fallout for the past two years. With this sort of equation
it seems possible to fit the actual measured milk data. However, from
experimental work on contaminated soil and in connection with waste
disposal, it would seem that no cesium or, at most, a very small fraction would be taken up from soil.