In Arctic regions lying on opposite sides of the North Pole, fallout has
created conditions that are given continuous scrutiny by scientists of
Scandinavia and the United States.
The two cases, one involving the Lapps of northern Finland and the other
the Eskimos of Alaska, are essentially the same. Hemispheric fallout
introduced quantities of long-lived radionuclides, particularly
cesium-137, into the food chains and consequently into the diets of
native peoples. In each instance there had occurred a slow accumulation
of radionuclides in the lichens and mosses and in other plants that are
the foods of the reindeer and caribou. The meat of these animals forms a
substantial part of the human diets, and as a result the members of the
native communities were found to have, on the average, body burdens of
radioactivity approaching the acceptable limit for human populations.
A preliminary study of the Lapp environment was made in 1958-1959, and a
Lapp dietary study was made in 1960. The results showed close
correlation between the consumption of reindeer meat and the Lapps’ body
burdens of cesium-137. The Scandinavian investigators concluded that the
levels of concentrated cesium approximated the maximum permissible dose
range for large populations. They noted, however, that “the final answer
... has to be given by the geneticists”.
[Illustration: _Placing equipment to measure fallout in precipitation
north of the Arctic Circle in Alaska._]
In Alaska, where studies of the native populations have been proceeding
for several years, adult Eskimos living in the vicinity of Anaktuvuk
Pass[20] were found in 1964 to have average body burdens of cesium-137
more than 20 times as great as the average for adults in the area of the
original 48 states. There was an expectation that even without further
nuclear testing the levels of cesium-137 would continue to rise slowly
in Arctic regions until about 1968.