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PLUTONIUM CONCENTRATIONS IN TISSUES OF OCCUPATIONALLY EXPOSED NUCLEAR WORKERS ( PLUTONIUM INJECTION EXPERIMENTS )

CAMPBELL, E E [LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY]; EUTSLER, H A [LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY]; MCINROY, J F [LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY]; MOSS, B C [LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY]

HREX; CONCENTRATIONS; PLUTONIUM; WORKERS

Location - DOE/NNSA NUCLEAR TESTING ARCHIVE Address - P.O. Box 98521 City - Las Vegas State - NV Zip - 89193-8521 Phone - (702)794-5106 Fax - (702)862-4240 Email - NTA@NV.DOE.GOV

REPORT

Never classified

0005

NV0703632

1994 Aug 27

2012 May 14

PLUTONIUM CONCENTRATIONS IN TISSUES OF OCCUPATIONALLY EXPOSED NUCLEAR WORKERS BY MCINROY, J. F., BOYD, H. A., EUTSLER, B. C., MOSS, W. D. (UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY). TISSUES FROM 175 AUTOPSY CASES OF FORMER WORKERS AT VARIOUS NUCLEAR FACILITIES HAVE BEEN ANALYZED FOR THEIR PLUTONIUM CONTENT. NOT ALL THE INDIVIDUALS HAD WORKED DIRECTLY WITH PU SINCE MANY WERE SECRETARIES, CLERKS, TRUCK DRIVERS AND OTHER SUPPORT PERSONNEL. THE RESULTS INDICATE THAT APPROXIMATELY TWO-THIRDS OF THESE CASES HAVE PU DEPOSITIONS NOT MORE DIFFERENT THAN FALLOUT LEVELS OF PU IN THE U. S. GENERAL POPULATION. ESTIMATED WHOLE BODY DEPOSITIONS IN THE REMAINING CASES RANGE FROM ABOUT 0.05-50 NCI. DATA FROM THE 12 HIGHEST DEPOSITION CASES ARE COMPARED WITH THE IN VIVO ESTIMATES FROM URINALYSIS DATA. IN GENERAL, THE URINALYSIS DATA GIVE ESTIMATES THAT ARE HIGH BY FACTORS OF 2-3, OR MORE. THE OBSERVED VARIATION IN THE WHOLE BODY DISTRIBUTION SUGGESTS THAT EACH EXPOSURE INCIDENT IS UNIQUE AND MUST BE EVALUATED ON THE BASIS OF THE PU EXPOSURE PARAMETERS INCLUDING THE CHEMICAL FORM, SOLUBILITY, PARTICLE SIZE, MODE OF ENTRY AND DURATION OF EXPOSURE. SEVERAL OF THE HIGHEST DEPOSITION CASES ARE PRESENTED TO ILLUSTRATE THE VARIATIONS OBSERVED. ESTIMATES OF PU PARTICLE SIZE DISTRIBUTIONS IN THE LUNG AND TRACHEOBRONCHIAL LYMPH NODES OF ONE CASE ARE GIVEN.