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RADIATION STANDARDS, INCLUDING FALLOUT
and other organizations and individuals working directly with radiation, or in related fields of competency, with basic radiological health
data which can be further analyzed and interpreted to meet specific
program needs,
he assessment programs and the related research effort of the Public Health Service in radiation surveillance are described in detail in
the later sections of this report. Each of the operational programs,
while having a specific objective, is in turn related to other programs.
These can be briefly summarized as follows:
The radiation surveillance network is the basic alerting system for
determining the levels of operation of many other surveillance actiyities. The network measures gross beta radioactivity of particulates
in air and precipitation; sampling is done by the State health departments throughout the United States. Within the Division of Radiological Health, data from this system are used in the general planning
of sampling schedules and surveillance activities of other monitoring
networks. In addition, the data are made available on a daily basis
to other agencies of Government, including the Atomic Energy Com-
mission, the Department of Defense, and the Weather Bureau for
use in their respective programs.
This alerting system is particularly important since Soviet weapons
testing has become a major factor in radiation exposure from fallout.
Thefirst reliable information available to health agencies relative to
the possible magnitude of the Soviet fallout is provided by this system. The requirement for continuing operations is thus greater than
it is when the U.S.testing programsare the basic source of radioactive
fallout, and knowledge concerning the magnitude and duration of the
testing program is thus available to the Public Health Service.
The pastuerized milk network measures radioactive iodine, strontium, cesium, and barium in milk sampled at 61 stations representing
major metropolitan areas in the United States. In total, the samples
collected reflect the milk consumption of about 60 million people. It
is believed that radioactivity in milk is presently the best single indicator of the significant elements from fallout which can be quickly
measured and translated into exposure data for comparison with the
guidelincs established by the Federal Radiation Council.
During the weapons testing moratorium, monthly samples were
taken at each sampling station for analysis of gamma emitting isotopes—-particularly iodine 131, and for radiochemical analysis of
strontium 89 and strontium 90. Since weapons testing was resumed,
weekly samples are collected when minimum fresh fallout is expected.
Whenthe gross beta activity in air or other indicators suggest that
appreciable levels of iodine 131 can be expected, the sampling procedures may be stepped up to a semiweekly or a daily basis. The
greater numberof samples thereby obtainedfacilitates the comparison
of average population exposure with Federal Radiation Council guideines.
The institutional diet sampling program is being developed so that
we can assess more accurately the daily intake of radionuclides by
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