Table 2. Comparison of predicted and measured body burdens of 137Cs for three atolls in the Marshall Islands. Predicted 137Cs adult body burdensin wCi Atoll Imports available Bikini 5.50 Rongelap 0.19 Utirik 0.043 Imports unavailable 11 0.42 0.098 Measured 137Cs body burdensin pCi in LLNLdiet model BNL diet? ~20 0.58 1978> 2.4 (M); 1.7 (F) 0.18 0.17 (A) | 0.053 (A) 4 Naidu etal., 1981. b (M) stands for male, (F) stands for female, and (A) stands for adult; BNL data, (Lessard et al., 1980a, 1980b; Miltenbergeretal., 1980). Also listed are the kilocalories per day (kcal/d) intake for the diet model when imported foods are both available and unavailable. The intake of 1450 g/d including milk products in our diet model when imported foods are available is higher by about 200 to 400 g/d than the results from the U.S. and Japan surveys. The 3003 kcal/d in the diet model somewhat erratic, inventories of imported foods are expected to be such that the total absence of . imported foods from the diet is most unlikely. A final consideration for the diet modelis allowances from 1600 to 4000 kcal/d (Committee the predicted amount of calcium. Dietary calcium has to be considered because most models for 20Sr dosimetry depend on strontium/calcium ratios (Papworth and Vennart, 1973, 1984; Bennett, 1973, 1977, 1978; Cristy et al., 1984; for Revision of the Canadian Dietary Standard, Leggett et al., 1982). Generally, the models are exceeds the U.S. average by little more than 1000 keal/d. The average recommended allowances for caloric intake range from 2000 to 3200 kcal/d, and individual recommended 1964; Food and Agricultural Organization, 1957; designed based on the assumption that the daily ICRP, 1975; National Academyof Science, 1980). intake of calcium is about 0.9 g, as it is in the It appears that the U.S. population average intake seldom reaches these high recommended levels. This comparison showsthat our diet model, calcium intake for the diet model is 0.85 g/d, which we believe validates the applicability based upon the MLSCsurveyat Ujelang Atoll, is not seriously at variance with the U.S. and Japanese data for g/d intake or for total daily calories consumed. It appears likely that the overall error is in the conservative direction of overestimating total intake. The estimates for “Imported Foods Unavailable" scenario (Tables 2 and 3) are based upon the assumption that no imported foods are available; that is, people would ae Ek world this is quite unrealistic. The demandis present, suppliers and commercial transport are available, and the people have cash in hand. Even though resupply schedules may be consume only local foods for their entire lifetime. Our observation is that in today's I0001bI United States and Europe. The estimated of the model for 9°Sr dosimetry. A few general conclusions can be drawn from evaluating all the available data on dietary habits in the Marshall Islands. 1. Coconut meat and fluid consurnption is the major source of 137Cs intake in the diet model; the diet model does predict the 137Cs burden observed in actual whole-body counting of the adult population for twoatolls. _ 2. The dietary habits are, to a degree, atoll specific and should be generalized from one atoll to another only when