Radiochemical techniques indicated the prominence of
flesh.
65
~“Zn in the tuna's edible
If it was assumed 1) that 62m was the principal contributor to the ex-
ternal photon count rate, 2) that a self-sufficient living pattern existed on
Utirik in which adults consumed 300 gms of fish each day (Na80), and 3) that 1%
of the fish eaten was tuna, then the daily activity ingestion rate might have
been 7x10? Bq d+ (2x10? wei d!) in May and June and 7x10° Bq d! (2x10° yci
a7) in July and August of 1954.
This method of estimating $525 daily activity
ingestion rates yields a ten times greater estimate of total intake than the
total intake suggested by body-burden extrapolation techniques (see Eq. 2).
Al-
though the 6525 total intake estimate indicated for Utirik adults in Table 4 was
based on scanty data, it was made with fewer assumptions than was the above estimate using Japanese fishing data.
The validity of the 239 Pu data used to estimate the body burden at
Rongelap Atoll (see Table 1) in 1973 had been considered by an Energy Research
and Development Agency ad hoc committee.
The committee concluded that, because
of the possibility of contamination of the urine samples, these data were uncertain.
This may indeed have been a factor since a radiochemical analysis of
BRAVO debris indicated Rongelap Atoll was contaminated with 2395, (Ts55).
No
special precautions had been taken when the urine samples were collected in the
field,
therefore, not much credence could be given to these data.
In 1976, three male adults at Rongelap Atoll provided urine samples for
3954 analysis.
Two yielded results below the minimum detection limit of
1
3.7x107* Bq 2 “1 (10 £ci 27+) and one yielded 3.3x107> 3 Bq 2) -1 (90 £Ci 2").
The
average of these values along with the 1973 adult average data that was reported
by Conard (Co75) were used to derive potential body burdens.
listed in Table 1.
21
The results were