Re: Looking for sources.

["GOLDIN, ERIC" <goldinem@songs.sce.com>]

     A Dec. 16, '94 letter from Michael Stabin of ORNL to Carol Marcus 
     at UCLA was published in the Jan. '95 Straight Talk (CalRad 
     Forum) and reported the typical banana contains 440 mg of 
     potassium.  He noted 1.18E-4 g K-40/g K, and 7E-6 Ci/g K-40.  You 
     get 3.6E-10 Ci K-40/banana (~13 Bq).  With the Fed Guidance Rpt 
     #11 value for ingestion of 5E-9 Sv/Bq, you get about 7E-3 
     mrem/banana (units I can deal with) and the makings for a good 
     Part I CHP problem.  At an average of ~74 bananas/yr/US citizen 
     (according to Michael), the annual US population banana dose 
     exceeds 100,000 person-rem, an ALARA nightmare.
     
     P.S.  Michael showed that bananas deliver much higher population 
     doses than uranium releases, and he suggests similar problems 
     with other high potassium-concentration foods such as avocados 
     and ice cream (!).
     
     Eric Goldin,  Southern California Edison
     goldinem@songs.sce.com
     (714) 454-4522