892
THOMPSON AND LENGEMANN
—7
T_T
YF
20
Oo
°
0
&
|
o
3
!
o
J
|
CESIUM/ STRONTIUM RATIO IN URINE
100
20
40
60
DAYS
80
100
120
Fig. 10—Urinary cesium/strontium ratio in rats showing time pattern
of increase, equilibration, and decline.
of these two nuclides. If the levels of the radionuclides fluctuated
independently or if the dietary intake were altered significantly, the
shift in the cesium/strontium ratio would make its use questionable
for such estimating procedures. Thus the real advantage of using
radiocesium would be to quickly estimate urinary *Sr for an ultimate
estimate of dietary radiostrontium levels. This speed would be lost
during an emergency situation when radionuclide levels are changed
suddenly. The use of '°’Cs would require a period for equilibration to
the new levels before estimates could be made.
SUMMARY
Variations in radionuclide intake resulting from changes or dif- |
ferences in food consumption can be significant, but the actual range
of intake levels may be unknown because of lack of appropriate foodconsumption data. Much added or updated information on food consumption is needed if we are to be capable of assessing the real
hazard of radionuclide intake for many segments of the population. It
appears that the estimates for the population at large may be usable
in a gross sense, but they do not provide methods of estimating the
extremes. It is these extreme areas which are of primary importance
in any accidental release or sudden concentration of radioactivity.