FALL-OUT IN N.Z.

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30943, 27 December 1965, Page 7

FALL-OUT IN N.Z.

Nine Stations Record Average

The average amount of Strontium-90 in New Zealand milk tested at nine stations throughout New Zealand for the year to August, 1965, was 9.5 per cent of the “cautionary level” for the whole population, according to the National Radiation Laboratory’s quarterly report on fall-out in New Zealand. The report says that the average for the year was 12.4 Strontium units. The “cautionary level” of 130 units, set by the British Medical Research Council, was half of the “permissible level.” The New Zealand average was therefore 4.8 per cent of the “permissible level” for the whole population.

Total gamma activity measurements on air filter samples from Auckland and Christchurch for the third quarter of the year were similar to those of the second quarter. The total beta activity of Christchurch rain increased slightly. The average deposition of Strontium-90 recorded at the nine stations had dropped from the seven-years’ peak of 1.35 millicuries a square kilometre in the first quarter of this year to 0.61 in the second quarter and 0.57 in the third quarter. The report says that the average level of Strontium-90 in milk at the nine stations has increased from 12.2 units for May-June, 1965, to 13.7 units for July-August. 1965. It says that the New Zealand average for caesium-137 in milk has decreased from 67 units for the second quarter of 1965 to 47 units in the third quarter.