RRR RADIATION STANDARDS, «INCLUDING FALLOUT 127 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE, Pusptic HEALTH SERVICE, Washington, D.C., May 24, 1962. The Public Health Service announced today that preliminary field reports received from its radiation surveillance networks show increased amounts of radioactive iodine (I™) have appeared in pasteurized milk samples from a number of States located mostly in midcontinent sections of the United States. The States, date of sample, and micromicrocuries of I per liter of milk are as follows: Micro- Date Micro- micro- curies‘ Date per 30 45 90 300 660 290 curies r liter Arkansas: Little Rock....-.____ May 14 Colorado: Denver__._-._.---__- May 17 Tilinois: Chicaco_. Iowa: Des Moines Kansas: Wichita____.___Minnesota: Minneapolis. -.____ May 18 micro- a8, : wea E eee eeb eh aa reer acer re eT liter Misso Kansas City__........-----. . Louis. 2.2.2. New York: Syracuse Ohio: Cincinnati__.......----.. Tennessee: Chattanooza..__._..] West Virginia: Charleston._.__. May 17 May 15 May 18 600 80 40 50 30 40 Previous levels at all points in the 61-station network had been below 20 micromicrocuries per liter, the Public Health Service said. Under Federal Radiation Council guidelines an annual average Iintake of 110 micromicrocuries per day, or a total of 36,500 micromicrocuries for the year (range II), is considered acceptable under normal peacetime conditions. The Council recommends that consideration be given to protective countermeasures when indications are that average daily intake for a year will be in range II, which for I™ is 100 to 1,000 micromicrocuries total daily intake, or a total of 36,500 to 365,000 micromicrocuries for the year. A micromicrecurie is one-millionth of one-milHonth of a curie. A curie is equivalent to the radioactivity given off by 1 gram of radium. Iodine 131 has a half-life of 8 days, which means that its radioactivity decreases by half every 8 days. The Public Health Service said that the recently detected increases are believed to be transient, but in order to evaluate the situation more completely milk sampling had been increased from the normal weekly schedule to a twiceweekly basis in the affected areas. Dr. Cyapwick. I should now like to very briefly summarize the material presented in these reports. The iodine report summarizes the information on iodine 131 exposure during the fall of 1961. Previous periods during which iodine 131 levels have been detectable in milk were reported in the 1959 hearings. Iodine 131 from the Soviet atmospheric weapons testing series began appearing in milk during September 1961. By January the levels in genera] had returned to a value at or below the lower limit of detectability of 10 micromicrocuries per liter. The data on the iodine concentrations in milk are summarized in table I of thefirst report submitted for the record. Some evaluation of reported iodine 131 concentrations in milk can be obtained by comparing estimated total intakes of iodine 131 with the guidance of the Federal Radiation Council. For purposes of estimating intake, it has been assumedthat (1) the average consumption of fresh milk in the critical age group is 1 liter per day, and (2) milk is the only significant source of intake of radioiodine in this group. iss Ee LEP Ra ebi gSgrARESPREEgeesAeoeAA PCE Ce BE