-12-
effects, if test fallout does so.
An examination of -ital
records should be made to test for such effects and tre
Atomic Energy Commission is doing so as best it can. The
United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic
Radiation has been comparing the data on natural background
dosages, and it is hoped that this study will be continued
and that the search will be made for observable effects of
variations in the natural background dosege, for it is certain that any effects due to gamma rays from fallout must
be already present in much larger measure due to the natural
dosage.
TI,
VARIATION IN INDIVIDUAL STRONTIUM-90 BURDENS
What is the likelihood that even though the average
strontium-90 content be well within tolerance limits, that a-
few individuals should exceed tolerance limits?
Let us con-
sider first the case which will ultimately hold, the situation of complete equilibrium with the environment in so far
as the strontium-90 burden is concerned. The only way we
can make judgments about the expected individual varistions
from the mean concentration is by direct experiment on human
body composition, not only for strontium-90 but for other
analogous constituents. Most of the recent data on the
strontium-90 body burden are from odd bits of bone removed
during surgical operations, but fortunately we have actual
data for the strontium-90 content of the entire bodies of
some several dozen stillborn childrenl/in the city of
Chicago in the year 1953.
A strenuous effort is now being
made on the Sunshine Project to continue this series and
1.
W. F. Libby, "Radioactive Strontium Fallout," Proc. Nat.
Acad. Sci. 42, No. 6, 365-390 (1956); University of
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Chicago, Project Sunshine Bulietin No. 12, August l,
1956.