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