-9-
area, which are considerable and which are evident in the tables
of the appendix where all the itndividual sample counts are tabulated, are not apparent in this generalization.
The significance
of these differences, however, is discussed on pages 11 to 34.
From Table I and Figure 2 the past, present, and future gross
radioactivity in the principal food items of Rongelap Atoll can
be approximated.
The method selected to indicate the error in estimating the
values in Table I is the "coefficient of variation" which ts
the ratio of the standard deviation to the mean.
These values,
C, expressed in percent, are given ih Table II (page 7).
The
range in values from 10 percent to 178 percent indicates a high
degree of variability.
These data are closest to being points on a straight line
vhen plotted on a log-log scale using the time of the blast,
March 1, 1954, as time of origin.
From this data it appears that mixed fission products
are the principal source of radioactivity in the food stuffs.
Exceptions are bird thyroids,
in which the radioactivity was
practically all q231, and the gastric mill in a coconut crab,
for which the decay curve was nearly a straight line on a semilog plot.
For the purpose of making an approximation of the
average rate of decline, the slope of a least-squares line
through the averages of the points in Figure 2 was determined
and found to be -1.75.
The variation in radioactivity associated with area, in
most instances, is related to fallout.
Rongelap Atoll was on
te
UNIVE