Experimental study of caesium-137 incorporation in man

Large discrepancies have been observed between the estimates of 137Cs incorporation in the Austrian population derived from the observed 137Cs concentration in food and results of whole-body counting. Therefore the conventional model of 137Cs incorporation in man was tested by one of the authors by a study of the 137Cs accumulation in his body resulting from a controlled intake in his diet. The result fully confirms the conventional model and suggests that the discrepancy is probably due to a considerable over-estimate of the 137Cs contamination of the Austrian food in the existing calculations of dose due to the Chernobyl accident. (author)