Table 7. Cesium-137 concentration in Bq g-! wet weight in Rongelap Island vegetation (decay corrected
to 1995).
Time period
Drinking
coconut meat
1978 (NMIRS)
0.065 (3)8
1986-1993
0.071 (433)
Drinking
Copra
—
0.16 (14)
0.27 (16)
0.068 (1)
0.12 (108)
0.25 (116)
0.13 (40)
coconut fluid
meat
0.032 (427)
Pandanus
|
readfruit
a Number of samples in parentheses.
The comparison in Table 7 is based on the
readjustmentof the class of coconuts collected in
1978. The results for samples collected in 1978
and those collected from 1986 through 1993 are
. very similar for all food products even though
there was a very limited sampling in 1978.
Diet
indicative of the acknowledged un
dietary estimates. Nevertheless,
that the MSLC survey provides a
basis for estimating dietary intake.
availability of empirical data, we have chosen
to use the higher (female) diet as ourfdiet model
refinement.
The estimated average intake of local and
imported foods used in the dose assessmentis a
very important parameter; radiological dose
will scale directly with the total intake of
137Cs, which is proportional to the quantity of
locally grown foods that are consumed.
Therefore, a reasonable estimate of the average
daily consumption rate of each food item is
essential. Our laboratory, and independent
committees, in concert with local government
authorities, with the legal representatives of
the peopie, and with Peace Corps
representatives, and anthropologists have
endeavored to establish and document pertinent
trends, cultural influences, and economic realities
—with the hope that our estimates may be
ported by
Our choice of this diet model is s
other considerations. The estimat
people, is higher in the Brookhaven National
Laboratory (BNL) diet than in our diet model;
this difference arises in part from
tile fact that
rather than for food actually cons
A more
detailed comparison of the Ujelang
Ifiet Survey
with higher dietary intake estimated
by the
BNL A and B diets against actual
measurements ofthe Rongelap and Uri
made by another BNL team sho
MLSC diet predicts observed body bufdens more
soundly based.
closely than does. the BNL diet (Rotgison, 1983;
Tables 5 and 6. The basis of this diet model was
doses using our diet model are very #lose to the
The diet model we use for estimating the
intake of local and imported foods is presented in
the survey of the Ujelang community in 1978 by
Miltenberger et al., 1980a; Lessard
al., 1980a,
1980b). In fact, predictions of body byrdens and
whole-body measurements of the pogulation, as
the Micronesian Legal Services Corporation
(MLSC)staff and a Marshallese school teacher
is illustrated in Figure 3. The “localdiet (imported foodsunavailable)
were presented for women, men, teenagers, and
excess of those observed by direct
on Ujelang (Robison et al., 1980). The results
children. Adult intake exceeded that of
teenagers and children, and the intake of local
food was about 20% greater for women than for
men. The higher intake attributed to women is
unexplained and certainly questionable.
only”
the BNL
A and B diets lead to body burdeng greatly in
whole-body
measurements.
Further support of our diet modelfis found in
current estimate of consumption of cop
It is
21