Developing milk industry estimates for dose reconstruction projects

One of the most important contributors to radiation doses from hanford during the 1944-1947 period was radioactive iodine. Consumption of milk from cows that ate vegetation contaminated with iodine is likely the dominant pathway of human exposure. To estimate the doses people could have received from this pathway, it is necessary to reconstruct the amount of milk consumed by people living near Hanford, the source of the milk, and the type of feed that the milk cows ate. This task is challenging because the dairy industry has undergone radical changes since the end of World War 2, and records that document the impact of these changes on the study area are scarce. Similar problems are faced by researchers on most dose reconstruction efforts. The purpose of this work is to document and evaluate the methods used on the Hanford Environmental Dose Reconstruction (HEDR) Project to reconstruct the milk industry and to present preliminary results