517 



Another perspective can be seen in the concentration of the relevant 

 radionuclides which are permissible for public drinking water. These are 

 shown in Table 3, expressed in units of pCi/kg. 



Table 3 



Maximum Permissible Concentrations 



(Public Drinking Water) 



Nuclide Permissible Concentration 



(pCi/kg) 



Pu-239 5,000 



Cs-137 20,000 



Sr-90 100 



When the values reported in the EPA studies (both for sediment and sea 

 life concentration) are viewed in terms of these drinking water standards, 

 once again they are found to be extremely small in nearly every case. The 

 only exception to this was a single core sediment sample taken within 5 cm 

 of a particular waste canister in the Atlantic. A similar sample 4 meters 

 away from the first gave readings for the most part below detectabil i ty 

 limits. 



Another insight on relative hazard may be gained from a comparison with 

 the natural radioactivity of fish. According to a study of the Health and 

 Safety Laboratory (USAEC-HASL-224, April 1970), fish in the average San 

 Francisco diet contain a Radium-226 concenration of 0.26 pci/kg. (Fish in 

 the average New York City diet contain 0.89 pci/kg.) This is simply due 

 to the natural occurrence of Radium in oceanic waters. 



Comparing drinking water standards, it can be shown that one picocurie 

 (pci) of Radium-226 is equivalent in ingestion toxicity to 250 picocuries 

 of Plutonium-239. Therefore the "hazard" due to eating fish in San 

 Francisco, simply due to its natural Radium-226 content, is equivalent to 

 its having a plutonium "burden" of 65 pci/kg. 



The maximum value for Plutonium content of fish at the Farallon site in 

 the muscle tissue or edible flesh that was actually observed and measured 

 was 0.008 + 0.003 pci/kg. From this perspective it can be concluded that 

 the maximum hazard from Plutonium in fish from the Farallon dumpsite is a 

 factor of 8125 less than that due to naturally occurring Radium in the 

 same fish. Note again that Radium is just one of many naturally occurring 

 radionuclides in the marine environment. 



To place the measurement in further perspective, consider the natural 

 radium content of other food products. Since, curie for curie, radium is 

 250 times more toxic than plutonium via ingestion, the equivalent 

 plutonium toxicities of everyday food products can be easily computed. 

 For example, Brazil nuts, due to their natural radium content, have an 

 equivalent plutonium concentration of 3,500,000 pCi/kg. Placed in this 

 perspective, a one ounce serving of Brazil nuts is equivalent in terms of 

 plutonium radiotoxicity to 27 million pounds of fish sampled at the 

 Farallons. The consumption of Brazil nuts should not be a particular 



