Measurement of tritiated species in urine for characterization of an exposure

Journal Article · Sat Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996 · Health Physics

OSTI ID:394066

Trivedi, A; Duong, T ^[1]

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1. AECL, Chalk River, Ontario (Canada)

Since tritium exposures in some tritium handling facilities can involve intakes of both organic tritium and HTO, the ability to distinguish between HTO and non-HTO intakes may be important for radiation protection purposes. We have previously demonstrated that the measurement of HTO to organically bound tritium (OBT) ratios in urine can distinguish between HTO and non-HTO intakes, but current bioassay methods are of limited value in identifying the nature and characteristics of the original exposure. A high performance liquid chromatography-based (HPLC) method was developed to examine for the presence of characteristics urinary metabolites associated with different exposure situations. Non-volatile metabolites in urine were isolated by evaporating an aliquot of urine samples, at room temperature under the nitrogen, from animals percutaneously exposed to tritiated formaldehyde, tritium gas-contaminated metal surfaces and tritiated pump oil, and were dissolved in a mobile phase (11% acetonitrile with 2.5% tetrabutlyammonium dihydrogen phosphate in 20 mM glycine buffer, with the pH adjusted to 2.95 with 0.1 N HCl) to be chromatographed on a column C8 Delta-bond octyl. Forty fractions were collected at I min intervals with flow rate of 1.3 mL min{sup -1}, and their tritium activities were measured. The data showed that the ratios of non-volatile tritiated metabolites in fraction I (0-20 min) to fraction II (20-40 min) were noticeably different between the animals exposed to tritiated formaldehyde (40.9{+-}3.3), tritium gas-contaminated metal surfaces (16.5{+-}2.5), or tritiated pump oil (8.7{+-}0.4) up to 48 h post-exposure. Therefore, if the nature of tritium exposure is unknown, measuring the ratios of HTO to OBT in urine and/or characterizing the ratio of non-volatile tritiated metabolites in fraction I to fraction II may be useful in identifying the source and nature of tritium intakes.

• OSTI ID: 394066
• Report Number(s): CONF-9607135--
• Journal Information: Health Physics, Journal Name: Health Physics Journal Issue: Suppl.6 Vol. 70; ISSN HLTPAO; ISSN 0017-9078
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
40 CHEMISTRY
BIOASSAY
LIQUID COLUMN CHROMATOGRAPHY
METABOLITES
OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE
RADIATION PROTECTION
TRITIUM
TRITIUM OXIDES
URINE