Experimental verification of overdispersion in radioassay data

New evidence is provided suggesting that radioassay data are frequently overdispersed with respect to the Poisson distribution. Twelve cases of radioassay data were measured using commonly available detection systems. The data were analyzed using a limited version of the overdispersion model developed earlier. In that limit, the relationships between three overdispersed distributions were derived and discussed: beta-Poisson, negative binomial, and overdispersed Gaussian. Out of a total of 13 cases studied (12 measured plus one from the literature), 4 were consistent with the Poisson statistics at 90% confidence level while the remaining 9 were found overdispersed. This shows that the overdispersion is rather prevalent in radioassay. All three overdispersed distributions fitted the data very well. The overdispersion was attributed mostly to the excess fluctuations of the detection systems or, in 2 cases, sequential radioactive decay.