436
exhibit the highest radioactivity. By comparison, South American, African, Iranian,

and some West Indian tea show considerably
less radioactivity. Nevertheless, contamination appears to be more or less worldwide.

It cannot be explained by any special pre-

dilection of the tea plant for translocation of
natural radioactivity from the soil, since no
pre-1945 teas have ever shown any radioactive content.

JOURNAL OF THE A.0.4.C. (Vol. 42, No. 2, 1959)
REFERENCES
(1) Nier, A. O., Phys. Rev., 77, 789 (1950).
(2) Suttle, A. D., and Libby, W. F., Anal.
Chem., 27, 921 (1955).

(3) Eckelmann, W. R., Kulp, J. L., and Schulert, A. R., Science, 127, 266 (1958).
(4) Gamma spectrometry analyses were made
at the Division of Nuclear Medicine,
Walter Reed Hospital.
(5) Analyses furnished by the Health & Safety

Laboratory, Atomic Energy Commission.

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