BIOLOGICAL INJURY FROM PARTICLE INHALATION

Technical Report · Wed Jun 18 04:00:00 EDT 1952

OSTI ID:4184871

Smith, F; Boddy, D W; Goldman, M

Mongrel dogs and sheep were exposed at 2500, 5000, and 8000 feet from surface and underground zero. The purpose of the exposure was to assess the hazard due to innalation of the dust associated with surface and underground atomic detonations, and to compare the internal and external doses obtained in the exposed test annals. Animals were sacrificed at from H + 10 tc H + 24 hours, and at D + 2, D + 4, D + 9, and D + 70 days. Dry ashed homogenates of lung, liver, spleen, kidney, blood, bone, urine, and gut contents were assayed for radioactivity. Representative pieces of soft tissues were fixed by a freezing dehydration method for the preparation of autographs. Samples of bone were wet ashed and assayed for their radioactivity. Radioactivity in tissues taken from animals exposed during the surface shot was extremely low and total body amounts of radioactive materials found at the time of sacrifice were esttiated to range between 0.06 and 2.13 mu c. Total-body activity for animals exposed during the underground test ranged between 2.22 and 31.1 mu c. Integrated internal dosage due to beta eroission ranged from 0.10 to 0.43 rep. Dosage for dog lungs due to beta emission ranged between 0.25 and 7.03 rep and between 0.19 and 8.83 rep for sheep lungs. Tissue radioactivity had fallen below limits of detection in all animals by D + 9 following the underground sbct. Embryonic tissues and associated fluids contained lust delectable activity. Three tupes of radioactive particles were detected in autoradiographs of lung tissue. One of these particles was a pure alpha emitter of 5 mev energy and was probably Pu/sup 239/. A second type of active particle emitted alpha and beta particles whith a third was a pure beta emitter of indsterminate energy. Autoradiographs of soft tissue other than lungs showed no blackening. A few bone samples contained sufficient activity to cause some blackening on Ilford plates after 29 days of exposure. No evidence of alpha activity could be detected in bone samples. Radiochemical analysis of the femurs strongly indicated that their activity was due to Ba/sup 140/ and Sr/sup 90/. Amounts of activity taken up by the combined action of inhalation and ingestion in animals exrosed to the dust associated with either type of detonation were not physiologically signiiicant. The mixture of materials thus taken up was undetectable in tissues of animals sacrificed 4 days after the surface shot and 9 days after the underground shot. It is calculated that the underground detonation of a 20 KT weapon would not result in a short term inhalation and ingestion hazard tc dogs and sheep exposed under conditions comparable with those prevailing during the J ANGLE underground test. (auth)

• Research Organization: National Inst. of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, Bethesda, Md.
• NSA Number: NSA-14-006106
• OSTI ID: 4184871
• Report Number(s): WT-396(Del.2)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ALPHA DECAY-- BARIUM 140-- BETA DECAY-- ENERGY-- PARTICLE SOURCES-- PHYSIOLOGY-- PLUTONIUM 239-- RADIOAUTOGRAPHY-- STRONTIUM 90
ANIMALS-- DOGS-- DUSTS-- LUNGS-- NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS-- PROJECT JANGLE-- RADIATION DOSES-- RADIATION INJURIES-- RADIOBIOLOGY-- SHEEP-- TESTING-- UNDERGROUND EXPLOSIONS
BETA DETECTION-- BLOOD-- BODY-- BONES-- EMBRYOS- - FLUIDS-- KIDNEYS-- LIVER-- LUNGS-- PREPARATION-- QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS-- RADIATION DOSES-- RADIOACTIVITY-- RADIOAUTOGRAPHY-- SAMPLING-- SPLEEN-- TISSUES-- URINE
BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE