an extrapolation would suggest values in the same range as above, i.e.,

a few to several microcuries of strontium-90 per kilogram of calcium if
animals had lived in the area of greatest contamination.

%

soils in the United States, and of course there are differences in the
type of plant life and in the climate.

However, theoretical calculations

suggest that the same fallout in the United States might result in something like 100 microcuries of strontium-90 per kilogram of calcium in the
soils with the highest contamination.

With assumed discriminatory factors

from soil to bones of 10 or more, the implied eventual body burden of
strontium-90 is of the same magnitude in the Pacific.

The uncertainty of these data, however, would not deny the
possibility that for a similar fallout in the United States there might
eventually result a body burden of 10 or more microcuries per kilogram,
if people were to subsist entirely on food from the area of highest
contamination.

With maintained values two to three times this amount,

it might be expected that a few percent might die of bone tumors after a
latent period of 15 to 20 years.

It would be expected, however, that the

strontium-90 content in the food supply would slowly decrease with time.
Any measures taken to reduce the uptake of strontium-90 into the food
supply, and any supplemental foods from less contaminated areas would
lower the strontium intake.
For civil defense purposes, a full evaluation of the whole
environmental contamination problem is needed, especially for the cases
of multiple overlapping fallout patterns from many nuclear detonations

which might occur under wartime conditions. —

-19-

aMoe

The pacific island soils have higher calcium content than nost

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