You need JavaScript to view this

Activation Analysis and Public Health. Survey Paper

Abstract

The technique of activation analysis has useful and distinctive applications, not yet fully recognized or exploited, in public health. Three areas of usefulness may be recognized. 1. Industrial hygiene. Activation analysis offers a simple and efficient method for assessing and controlling occupational hazards associated with the handling of toxic materials, such as compounds of arsenic and of mercury. Examination of hair and nail samples, taken at six-monthly intervals, will yield a surprising amount of information regarding the influence on occupational exposure of individual variation in working habits, and inadequacy or non-observance of hygienic rules and other prescribed safety measures. 2. Epidemiology. The advantage conferred by activation analysis lies in the possibility of rapid and accurate estimation of trace element concentrations in small samples of tissue or other materials, such as can readily be obtained from population groups large enough to be statistically significant. Surveys of this kind have interesting potentialities in relation to dental caries, cancer, cirrhosis of the liver and heart disease. 3. Recognition of essential trace elements. Surveys of trace element concentrations suggest that the variability of tissue levels among members of a population is smaller for essential trace elements than for non-essential elements. It is possible also  More>>
Authors:
Lenihan, I. M.A.; [1]  Smith, H. [2] 
  1. Western Regional Hospital Board, Glasgow (United Kingdom)
  2. University of Glasgow, Glasgow (United Kingdom)
Publication Date:
Oct 15, 1967
Product Type:
Conference
Report Number:
IAEA-SM-91/21
Resource Relation:
Conference: Symposium on Nuclear Activation Techniques in the Life Sciences, Amsterdam (Netherlands), 8-12 May 1967; Other Information: 5 refs., 7 tabs., 5 figs.; Related Information: In: Nuclear Activation Techniques in the Life Sciences. Proceedings of the Symposium on Nuclear Activation Techniques in the Life Sciences| 726 p.
Subject:
60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES; ACTIVATION ANALYSIS; ARSENIC; EPIDEMIOLOGY; HAIR; INFORMATION; LIVER; MERCURY; OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE; PUBLIC HEALTH; TOXIC MATERIALS
OSTI ID:
22116230
Research Organizations:
International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)
Country of Origin:
IAEA
Language:
English
Other Identifying Numbers:
Other: ISSN 0074-1884; TRN: XA13M1290072885
Submitting Site:
INIS
Size:
page(s) 601-613
Announcement Date:
Jul 29, 2013

Citation Formats

Lenihan, I. M.A., and Smith, H. Activation Analysis and Public Health. Survey Paper. IAEA: N. p., 1967. Web.
Lenihan, I. M.A., & Smith, H. Activation Analysis and Public Health. Survey Paper. IAEA.
Lenihan, I. M.A., and Smith, H. 1967. "Activation Analysis and Public Health. Survey Paper." IAEA.
@misc{etde_22116230,
title = {Activation Analysis and Public Health. Survey Paper}
author = {Lenihan, I. M.A., and Smith, H.}
abstractNote = {The technique of activation analysis has useful and distinctive applications, not yet fully recognized or exploited, in public health. Three areas of usefulness may be recognized. 1. Industrial hygiene. Activation analysis offers a simple and efficient method for assessing and controlling occupational hazards associated with the handling of toxic materials, such as compounds of arsenic and of mercury. Examination of hair and nail samples, taken at six-monthly intervals, will yield a surprising amount of information regarding the influence on occupational exposure of individual variation in working habits, and inadequacy or non-observance of hygienic rules and other prescribed safety measures. 2. Epidemiology. The advantage conferred by activation analysis lies in the possibility of rapid and accurate estimation of trace element concentrations in small samples of tissue or other materials, such as can readily be obtained from population groups large enough to be statistically significant. Surveys of this kind have interesting potentialities in relation to dental caries, cancer, cirrhosis of the liver and heart disease. 3. Recognition of essential trace elements. Surveys of trace element concentrations suggest that the variability of tissue levels among members of a population is smaller for essential trace elements than for non-essential elements. It is possible also that tissue levels show a normal distribution for essential elements and a log-normal distribution for non-essential elements. (author)}
place = {IAEA}
year = {1967}
month = {Oct}
}