The laboratories at Rochester and Hanford were most active in inhalation
studies, although some were also done at Chicago.
The Rochester group turned
its efforts primarily to uranium inhalation and to some work with inhaled
polonium-210 but did not begin work with plutonium aerosols until much later
than the period of chis review.
The early statement from Hamilton that "lung retention is high" was confirmed
in the work at Hanford.
However, it became apparent that the nature of the
compound made a large difference, with plutonium oxide the most avidly retained
form and some others relatively soluble.
Credit for the first demonstration of a lung tumor induced by plutonium goes
to Ralph Wager (1956), who did his work in an old Quonset hut on the Hanford
reservation. He gave Pu0, by intratracheal instillation to mice. After one
year, 3 of 10 animals which had received 0.06 Ci of Pu0» showed readily identifiable lung tumors,
(Details as to mouse strain and type of tumor must be
deferred to a more complete analysis.) This finding was the beginning of the
enormous and fruitful efforts in inhalation toxicology of plutonium at the
centers mentioned plus more recent entrants such as the Lovelace Group in
Albuquerque.
THE NATIONAL NUCLEAR ENERGY SERIES
CONCLUDING REMARKS
This summary has had to be truncated at many points. Also, for the reasons
given at the outset, it has neglected almost entirely the early field and
ecological type studies. While not, insofar as plutonium is concerned, as
extensive or intensive as the laboratory studies, I wish there were time to at
least outline them. But there is not and I will console myself with the
thought that you are more likely to have heard of these than of the early
laboratory studies.
Let me close by exercising one of the prerogatives of a teacher of mre years
than many of you are years old and share one of my pet peeves. This is the
student who begins a graduate seminar on a given subject {and I have been to
more such seminars than I can count) with a statement something like this:
"I
will begin ny presentation by giving you a short history of the development of
this field beginning with the classical studies of Jones and Smith in 1969."
1969 Indeed! Does he have no appreciation of the long line of his scientific
forebearers who struggled mightily to establish the foundations for the present
work?
I do hope you have the feeling that we have a solid foundation of biomedical
work with plutonium and the other radioactive actinides, going back approximately three and a half decades to say nothing of the efforts of the chemists
and physicists who predicted the existence of these elements.
With the gradual lifting of classification restrictions of the late 40s and
early 50s, it was realized that a set of books summarizing the bulk of the
declassifiable information would be of enormous value. To accomplish this,
the Atomic Energy Commission and the McGraw-Hill Book Company cooperated in
getting out the equivalent of a Dr. Elliot's Five Foot Shelf for Nuclear
Energy. This was called the National Nuclear Energy Series (NNES).
Each of
the primary research groups became a "Division" and a very ambitious assembly
of titles and editors was produced.
The subject matter included chemistry,
physics, instrumentation, engineering, and biology and medicine. An enormous
amount of information was assembled and published and the series is a fine
source of information on the sort of thing I have been discussing this morning.
Indeed I am surprised to find that many young investigators do not know of
this series or use it ag the starting point for their literature surveys.
Unfortunately, the interest of potential authors and editors began to lag by
the mid-50s. They had more pressing current work to do. The excellent editorial
board and staff had to be disbanded before all of the volumes could be completed.
Thus, despite the NNES, a significant amount of detailed information remains
sequestered in old files and on microfilms.
NOTE:
For the oral presentation, the title page and table of contents of some
of the NNES volumes most pertinent to biomedical Laboratory work with plutonium
were shown. To save space, only the references will be given here.
They are
Bloom (1948), Fink (1950), and Stone (1951).
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