Physiological Properties of Plutonium and Assessment of Body Burden in Man

History of Dose, Risk, and Compensation Assessments for US Veterans of the 1966 Plutonium Cleanup in Palomares, Spain

“…M ( t ) is the amount excreted daily in urine at time t , with t measured in days. A L and M ( t ) have consistent units, so that if M ( t ) is given in terms of Bq d −1 , A L has units of Bq (Langham 1963).…”

“…The data was obtained from human injection experiments coordinated by Langham (McCally et al 1994; Moss and Eckhardt 1995). Intramuscular and intravenous injections were used to establish resulting tissue distribution patterns (Langham 1963). The Langham formula does not account for the addition to the circulatory system of inhaled plutonium from the lungs, so that a cleanup worker’s body burden estimated by eqn (2) could be much less than the total intake that would be estimated by modern biokinetic models, especially for inhalation of insoluble particles.…”

“…The Langham formula does not account for the addition to the circulatory system of inhaled plutonium from the lungs, so that a cleanup worker’s body burden estimated by eqn (2) could be much less than the total intake that would be estimated by modern biokinetic models, especially for inhalation of insoluble particles. Some inhalation data on plutonium workers existed at the time, but this data was considered inconsistent by Langham (Langham 1963). Only eqn (2) was used to assess burden at Palomares, although at times Langham multiplied his results by a factor of 10 to estimate lung burdens, based on animal experiments (Eakins and Morgan 1964).…”

“…In the dosimetry estimates for the Palomares cleanup veterans, inhalation was assumed to be the dominant route of intake, based on the fact that the absorption fraction from the gut is very low (Langham 1963; Harrison 1991). Using the Langham formula, the Air Force’s Radiological Health Laboratory concluded that of 1,586 urine samples taken on-site, 20 indicated body burdens larger than the then-specified MPBB, and 422 indicated between 9% and 99% of the MPBB (Odland et al 1968).…”

Mortality Among Mound Workers Exposed to Polonium-210 and Other Sources of Radiation, 1944–1979

“…Personnel records from 1994 reported MDAs associated with chest counting of selected individuals and 171 counts (File Records-3 1994). MDAs are relatively high for the plutonium isotopes due to weak X-ray emissions and a half-value layer in tissue of only 0.6 cm for 239 Pu (Langham 1962). In vivo chest counting was therefore conducted as a secondary indication of worker contamination in conjunction with primary routine bioassay urinalysis.…”