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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Synergistic effect of polonium-210 and cigarette smoke in rats. Final report

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:7330197
An experimental procedure was devised to test the possible synergistic effect of polonium-210 and cigarette smoke in rats. Appropriate techniques were developed to expose the rats to cigarette smoke through mouth-breathing and to add known amounts of polonium-210 to the cigarette smoke. The findings from this experiment included: (1) lung deposition of polonium-210 was 31 plus or minus 2%, (2) early retention of polonium was two-phased with half-times of 4 and 84 hours, and (3) bronchitis, emphysema and lung tumors were observed in the experimental animals. Though the spontaneous occurrence of two lung tumors in the number of animals at risk was highly improbable, any conclusion that this resulted from the exposure to cigarette smoke must be highly qualified. (GRA)
Research Organization:
National Environmental Research Center, Las Vegas, Nev. (USA). Monitoring Systems Research and Development Lab.
OSTI ID:
7330197
Report Number(s):
PB-246174; EPA-680/1-75-001
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English