410389
\pril 27, 1959
Dr. John N. Wolf’, Chief
Ervtironnental Setences Branch
Division of Biclogzy and Medicine
U.S. \iomie Energy Commission
Washington 25. D.C.
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
Dear John:
Enclosed are data coneerning sr9e in food samples
collected at Rongelap Island in August 1958.
These are
being sent in response to a request from Gordon Dunning
to Al Seymour.
Information coneerning the collection of the food
sampl*s is to ba found in a letter_to Seymour 23 Sep-
tember 1958, and in the table "Cal37 in Daily Rations
of Food Grown at ongelap Atoll!
These two items are
pages 31.-38 of the “Rongelap Notebook:
Some sdditional remarks might clarify questions as
to th: interpr-tation of these data.
First, it should
b= clearly understood that the samples are daily rations
of locally grown foods only and do not represent the
total daily raticn. If the weight of the total ration
eiven by Dunning in “Radioactive Contamination in the
Prcifiec Seean, 1957, 18 used, then the locally grown
foods accounted for about 40 per cent of the total daily
ration on the average in August 1958.
At the present
time this proportion of locally grown foods in the diet
ig probebly lower fue to the current supply of ‘C-rations’
(Dr. Conard obtained data concerning diets during March
1969 ond my have sent them to Dr. Dunning.)
Second, obtaining a truly representative sample of
the dirt for even a single day involv<s many possible
sampling errors as,
for example,
bias on the part of
the Rongelapese in an effort to please,
This night result in too large a sample being taken.
4s hes been
pointed out before, it is to be expected that there will
be discrepancies between information obtained at diffterent times.
Third,
th:
sr9° results enclosed are based on analy-
Sis of aliquots of a pooled sample made up of the 13 sam-