f
e
Milier obtained an effective half-time of 110 days for the elimination of
gn, and for the two subjects from Utirik the urinary to fecal excretion ratic
was 1/9.
Assuming the excretion to be entirely exponential and 1C percent of the
body burden of one excreted in urine, the March 1958 urinery excretion levels
of 174 and 342 micromicrocuries indicate body burden, equilibrium body burden,
anc dai’y intake as follows:
RONGELAP
1954 Exposed Group
Control Group (Unexposed 1954)
Body Buzden (March 1958):
260 muc (+ 49%)
540 mec (+ 903)
Equilibrated Body Burden:
330 muc
650 muc
Deily Intake:
2100 wuue/day;/
4100 uuc/day 7
Percent Equilibration:
85.C percent
83.0 percent
The mean body burden estimated from 1958 excretion analysis for all Rongelap
subjects showed a ten-fold increase over the 1957 whole body measurements.
This
increase correlates with the return of these people to Rongelap atoll from
Majuro.
Also the 1958 Rongelap zn©5 burdens are comparable with the Utirik
subjects in 1957,
and the Utirik subjects would have been in equilibrium in
1957 (half time of 110 days for the elimination of zine”).
The estimated intake of zine? (2000 to 4000 uuc per day) can not be
accounted for by zn® activity levels reported in foodstuffs.
Although this
radio-nuclide reportedly accounts for a large fraction of the total activity in
fish, this amounts to only about six uuc per pound of muscle up to 75 uuc per
pound of whole fish (2) or at most four percent of the estimated intake.
CONCLUSIONS.
Since resettlement of the Marshallese people on Rongelap atoll in July 1957,
the urinary excretion level of cesium! >! has increased about 140 fold and about
# Assuming 100 percent absorption from the GI Tract
6