~ 26 -
55% uptake in relation to calcium.
Equilibrium state studies in humans
or animals have not yet been done so this may be a pessimistic figure.
The cow does a very good job of discriminating against Sr-90 in the
formation of milk.
The milk has only about 1/7th to 1/10th the stron-
tium-90/caleium ratioof the cow's diet. (1, 7, 8)
Comar has described
some factor present in milk which if taken in at the same time tends to
4noerease the Sr~90/calcium uptake ratio from vegetables towards that of
milk itself (9).
The discussions which follow concern themselves with levels of
fallout and their biological effects outside those areas nearby nuclear
weapons test sites where "near~in" fallout may be heavy and where acute
effects such as radiation burns and whole body radiation injury would
be expected in unsheltered persons present in the area.
The effects of
the latter sort of fallout are fully discussed in "Some Effects of Ionizing
Radiation in Human Beings" (30).
It should be kept in mind also that
where reference 18 mde to the "present rate of testing" or "present
pattern of testing" we are not dealing with something relatively precise
like the present birth rate.
The number of weapons tested, the fission
product yield, and the relative amounts of fission product debris distributed as nearby fallout, latitudinal fellout and as world-wide
stratospheric fallout have been different each year.
In order to simplify
the picture when extrapolating to future testing, we have quite arbitrarily
had in mind effects thatwuld result were the mtterns of testing prior
to 1957 or its equivalent repeated by 1965.