Re: News on BNL Deer -Factors at play?

[SAFarberMSPH@CS.COM]

Radsafe:

Some input from Brookhaven on the units and isotopic measurements would be of interest. However, it is most likely the activity measured is Cs-137 and the units are probably pCi/g. If so the dose consequences are rather small.


Of note: 

The variability in sampling residual weapons test fallout in animals around a nuclear facility can be quite large. The area around Brookhaven has very sandy soil as does most of Long Island which leads to very high transfer factors [Biv in RG 1.109] from soil to plant per unit deposition vs. that typically assumed.  This Biv factor can vary from the typically assumed 0.01 [one part Cs in plant to 100 parts in soil]  to a hundred times higher in very sandy soils or soils very low in potassium where the plant like grass [or tree] will try and suck up the potassium it needs to grow and take up Cs instead [chemical cogener] in its attempt to get what it needs.


If the particular young deer reported upon here had been  browsing on plants from an area particularly low in potassium in soil, the plants and tree shoots [and bark] which deer eat would be higher than other areas of soil which was more organic and higher in K. Bark on trees contains the highest percentage of minerals [and residual Cs-137 per unit weight] of any component of a tree. In winter, trees store what minerals they can before dropping their leaves and some ends up in the bark. Having lived in Vermont for many years, I've observed deer stripping the bark off trees in winter for some minerals and food value. This would obviously lead to some variability of intake of Cs-137 during the year depending on locale.


As I've mentioned in previous posts to Radsafe when I coordinated a nationwide survey of Cs-137 in woodash from domestic fireplaces about 10 years ago, the Cs-137 activity varied from about 200 pCi/kg wood ash in southern California to 35,000 pCi/kg in northern Florida [Gainesville - no where close to a nuclear facility]. Even in a single state like Vermont with very even fallout deposition, the Cs-137 activity varied from about 20,000  pCi/kg of ash in northern Vermont [Warren, VT area] to about one-tenth as much [roughly 2,000 pCi/kg ash]  in a sample of ash in sourthern Vermont from hardwoods collected around Vernon, VT [site of Vermont Yankee]. This data obviously shows that Vermont Yankee is sucking up Cs-137 from the environment! If the ten fold higher value in ash from trees around Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station had measured near a nuclear facility, I'm sure folks like our resident anti-nuke Norm would be issuing press releases non-stop. The Tooth Fa!

iry Project and Alec Baldwin and Christie Brinkley would be testifying before Congress trying to stop Yucca!


In any case, while this one sampling of a deer on Long Island may help understand some of the pathways of Cs-137 [almost certainly] movement in a sandy soiled, coastal environment like Long Island [relevant to Cape Cod, and much of Florida] it is unlikely to be indicative of any health concerns.


Stewart Farber

Consulting Public Health Scientist

[203] 367-0791

email: SAFarberMSPH@cs.com

======================

In a message dated 2/19/02 10:10:29 AM Pacific Standard Time, Cehn@AOL.COM writes: [excerpt from "news" report]



> After several radiation tests on the deer, lab scientists found it contained 21 picocuries of radioactive material. A picocurie is a unit used to measure radioactivity.
>
>
> Last year, deer collected around the lab averaged 1.64 picocuries, although one registered 11 picocuries, Green said.