Cancer Risk Estimates from Ingesting Strontium in Fish. M. Gochfeld and J. Burger, Rutgers University
Strontium-90 (Sr-90) was extensively studied during the 1950’s-1970’s because of the health concern for ingestion (particularly by growing children), due to its abundance in fallout from nuclear weapons testing. One of the primary fission products, Sr-90 is an analogue of calcium. It is readily absorbed from the respiratory tract (ca 100%) and from the GI tract (ca30%), and eventually is mostly stored in bone. Unlike Cs-137 which is more or less uniformly distributed in soft tissue, the main cancer risks from Sr-90 involve the bone (sarcoma) and the marrow (leukemia). Authorities differ on the risk coefficients for these diseases, based in part on different models of deposition in bone and different assumptions about radiation to the marrow. Bone cancer risks are based on beagles and radium dial painters and leukemia risks on beagles and atom bomb survivors. For populations along the Savannah River, we used Sr-90 concentrations in fish coupled with data from our studies on local fish ingestion rates, and compared risk estimation methods including the most recently published risk coefficients from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Guidance Document.
Work supported by Department of Energy Cooperative Agreement to CRESP under AI#DE-FC01-95EW55084 and DE-FC09-963518546.
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