Fig. 3: Monthly concentrations of 137Cs in milk measured by the U.S. Public Health Service Radionuclide Surveillance Program19,41 from 1960 through 2002 in Tampa, Florida (red) and New York City (NYC, blue) compared with modern honey from Florida (n = 22) and the NY area (n = 22) on identical scaling.
From: Bomb 137Cs in modern honey reveals a regional soil control on pollutant cycling by plants
The box center line indicates the median with the value given, the lower and upper bounds of the box show the 25th and 75th percentiles, respectively, and the minima and maximum whiskers give the 10th and 90th percentiles, respectively. These two regions have significantly different magnitudes of 137Cs contamination of honey (two-tailed Mann-Whitney test z score: 4.70, p = 10−5.6). The detection limit is 0.1 and 0.03 Bq 137Cs kg−1 for the milk and honey data, respectively. 20 out of 22 FL honeys had detectable 137Cs, but only 7 of the 22 NYC area (includes CT, NJ) honeys had detectable 137Cs.
