It was the practice for several years to estimate the potential dose rate to the gastrointestinal from sanitary water sources by evaluating the results of radiochemical analysis of individual nuclides. The proposed method estimates the GI tract dose from Pasco and Richland domestic water from measurements of the total beta activity, and permits more frequent and more economical evaluation of a variable source of radiation exposure. Beginning with 1964 data, the GI tract dose rate for Richland and Pasco sanitary water has been obtained by multiplying the total beta count by a conversion factor derived from the historical relationship between the radiochemical analyses and the total beta counts. Either the accumulation of more data or changes in the relative abundance of the more significant nuclides in the water may result in changes in this factor.

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It was the practice for several years to estimate the potential dose rate to the gastrointestinal from sanitary water sources by evaluating the results of radiochemical analysis of individual nuclides. The proposed method estimates the GI tract dose from Pasco and Richland domestic water from measurements of the total beta activity, and permits more frequent and more economical evaluation of a variable source of radiation exposure. Beginning with 1964 data, the GI tract dose rate for Richland and Pasco sanitary water has been obtained by multiplying the total beta count by a conversion factor derived from the historical relationship between the radiochemical analyses and the total beta counts. Either the accumulation of more data or changes in the relative abundance of the more significant nuclides in the water may result in changes in this factor.