EPR dosimetry was done on teeth from residents of villages along the T
echa river, Southern Urals, Russia. The residents have a Sr-90 body bu
rden due to massive releases of liquid nuclear waste into the Techa ri
ver in the early fifties. A long time after ingestion, strontium is on
ly incorporated into the skeleton and dentine of the adults but not in
tooth enamel. Tooth enamel therefore, is measuring the beta dose from
the contaminated dentine. Based on experimental data of this study a
first approximation of the ingestion dose coefficient of tooth enamel
was found to be more than 5 times lower than the value given in ICRP 6
9 for the bone surface of the skeleton. A similar difference was found
earlier for the dose absorbed in tooth enamel and dentine. The result
of this study allows the supposition that the metabolism of strontium
is very similar for tooth dentine and the skeleton.