aso)
VAN CAMP SEA FOOD COMPANY
tore
8430 Van Camp Street,
t
Port ot
Long
Beach, Califor
February 19, 1963
Dr. L. R. Donaldson, Director
Laboratory of Radiation Biology
University of Washington
Seattle 5, Washington
Dear Dr. Donaldson:
Mr. Vignolo's letter of today to you expresses our interest in the report
you forwarded us on the results of your radioactivity analyses of tuna meat
and tuna Livers obtained in our plant in American Samoa.
We are, of course, very pleased that the analyses completed in your laboratory
did not show more than a very small fraction of the levels used as a guide by
the National Committee on Radiation Protection. I was surprised at the lower
content of K49 in the liver than you found in the meat, and I am wondering
whether this ratio also would apply, more or less, to the other radioactive
elements tested for. The very low radioactivity found in the liver and the
meat of the tuna would presumably exclude the possibility of a selective
accumulation of significant amounts of Strontium-90 in the bone substances
or radioactive iodine in the thyroid.
We are grateful to you for sending us this data which will, no doubt, allay
any apprehensions that some of us may have had with respect to the possibility
of radioactive contamination resulting from recent nuclear explosions in that
area.
Sincerely yours,
her lovee
SL/df
Chicken of the Sea Brand Tuna