Comparison of observed body retention of uranium in natural condition in an average Indian adult with the values predicted by the ICRP biokinetic model

Abstract

The daily intake of natural uranium and its contents in the lungs, skeleton, liver and kidney of an Indian adult population group was estimated using radiochemical neutron activation analysis (RNAA). These data on daily intake (through inhalation and ingestion) were used to compute the uranium contents in the lungs and other systemic organs such as the skeleton, liver and kidney, using the new human respiratory tract model (HRTM) and the new biokinetic model of uranium. The theoretically computed uranium contents in the lungs, skeleton, liver and kidney of an average Indian adult are 1.16, 1.96, 0.07 and 0.04 microg, respectively, and the corresponding experimentally measured values are 1.23 (1.76), 2.92 (2.5), 0.07 (1.76) and 0.19 (1.47) microg in an urban population group living in Mumbai. The values given in parentheses are geometric standard deviation (GSD). It is seen that the measured uranium contents in the lungs, skeleton and liver agree very well with the corresponding computed values, but the measured value for the kidney is observed to be on the higher side of the computed value. However, in view of many uncertainties, the overall agreement between the measured and the computed values can be considered to be good. Therefore, the result from this study can be taken as a validation of the new biokinetic model of uranium in Indian conditions.