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“BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE — oo
_ Improvements in design of the “Ash Can”filtersystem to increaseefficie
; other fundamentally different methods of collection are being reviewed.
. The cost of the entire stratospheric. sampling program during fiscal year ;
proximately $300,000. In fiscal year 1958 both sampling operations and researth were ex- .
- panded. The total cost for fiscal year 1958 is expected to be approximately $1 N00, 000.
Food collection,
Representative samples of the foods that are the major# purces of cal-
cium in the diet are being collected through the cooperation of teams of theIn rdepartmental
‘Committee on Nutrition for National Defense. Samples already received from
rkey, the
Philippines, and Libya are being analyzedby the Health and Safety. Laboratory bf the New York
Operations Office...
,
Another food collection program is under way in Latin America. ‘Arrange nents-have been
- made with persons engaged in national nutrition and food programs in Argen d Chile, ‘and ‘
Peru for the collection of samples of the foods providing the major sources of calcium inthe —
diet of people ofthose countries. The samples will be analyzed for strontium 0 content,total
radioactivity, total strontium, and total calcium. In some instances, ‘samples @
be taken
from locations where gummed-papercollection stations exist, and correlatio
results will be attempted. |
of analytical
-
A similar collection program established through the efforts of Dr. J. ‘Lo. Culp, Lamont
‘Geological Observatory, Columbia University, will provide,’ in additionto foor samples,”samples of bone from the more primitive areas of Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, nd Venezuela.
The low calcium content of the soils of these tropical and.subtropical areas mayresult in
greater uptake of strontium 90 by vegetation and man. It is possible that the [na ximum concentration of. strontium 90 in humans may be determined from studies of sampleB fromthese countries and that the high end of the distribution curve for strontium 90 in the w@rld population
may be estimated.
t
Soil sampling. In the spring of 1958, representatives of the Departmen of Agriculture
will revisit most of the sites of earliersoil sampling in foreign countries tofeollect additional
- samples for analysis. A similar program was conducted in the United States in1 the fall of 1957
and the samples of soil collected at that time are being analyzed.| Z
AisAnsetis Sb ats oe tae
‘
The AEC ‘has had translated a.report of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Scienc¢
entitled, “On the
Behavior of Fission Products in Soil, Their Absorption by Plants and Their Accumulation in
Crops.”The studies reflected in this report closely parallel those
e being co ducted: in the United
States.
Strontium. 90) monitoring results. ‘Analyses performed at the Healthan safety. Laboratory
of the -New York Operations Office on samples collected in rainfail‘Pots andfon milk samples
showthe following trends in strontium 90 levels:
:
.
1.. From the beginning of 1957 to the fall of 19 57 the cumulative stfontium 90
values for the rainfall collection pots in New York, Pittsburgh,and Chigrago increased
about 10, 6, and 7 millicuries per square mile respectively. By the fall
of 1957 the
“ cumulative values for these pots were as follows: New York, 37-39 milicuries per
square mile (collection started in February 1954); Pittsburgh, 23 milliburies.per
es ee tee A re
3 Dig
Mi
square mile (collection started in February 1999); collection in: Chicago started in
December 1956.
7
2. Monthly values for dried milk from Perry, New York, for the rsteight
,
.|-oo :BE ; 2 "ees Lassie