410050 2“Battelle alta Maer © January 12, 1977 e Pacific Northwest !aboratories Battelle Boulevard Richdand, Washington 99352 Dr. dg. L. Liverman Office of the Assistant Administrator for Environment and Safety Energy Research and Development Administration Washington, D.C. 20545 Telephone (564 946-242] Telex 32-6345 DOCUMENT DOES NOTCONTAIN ECI Dey Cah Reviewed we? Pivbvbs Date K2O#2 Dear Jim: The Transuranium Technical Group met in Washington, D.C. on December 8, 1976 to review the data which suggest possible contamination of Bikini inhabitants with plutonium. The TTG views the issue of transuranium element contamination of present and future residents of the Bikini atoll as consisting of four major questions: 1. Do the residents of Bikini have plutonium burdens higher than those of other persons inhabiting Pacific atolls in approximately the same latitude? 2. If the Bikini residents do have increased plutonium burdens, what is the source of these burdens? 3. Woat future transuranic body burdens are projected for current residents and their descendants? 4, What potential health risks are associated with current and projected transuranic burdens of the Bikini residents? In addressing the first of these questions, data presented to the TTG indicated that urine plutonium levels of Bikini residents were 10 times greater than plutonium levels in the urine of residents of the continental United States. Unfortunately, the validity of both these sets of urine data is subject to question. The U.S. data are based on pooled samples from New York City residents, and were not confirmed by a recent carefully coklected large sample from one individual. This individual single sample was 10-fold lower than the pooled samples, and is in better agreement than the pooled samples with model estimates based on fallout plutonium burdens from autopsy data. The Bikini data are highly suspect because the samples were not collected in a manner to avoid possible contamination of urine by plutonium-contaminated soil on the body and clothing of the person providing the sample, or from resuspended plutonium-contaminated soil in the air. Also, urine samples were generally pooled which prevented identification of possible sampling discrepancies.