Cc. C.
sensitive to such intense localized radiation.
Liushbauah reperted on a lesion that developed as
of residual Pu-239
tontained 0.08 ug
The particle
from a puncture wouna’®,
Commenting on
of Pu-239.
(0.905 uCi)
the result
the authors
the histological examination of the lesion,
ate, "The autoradiographs showed precise confinement of
alpha-tracks to the area of maximum damage and
their
-onetration into the basal areas of the epidermis, where
epithelial changes typical of ionizing radiation exposure were
present.
The cause and effect relationship of these findings,
therefore, seemed obvious.
Although the lesion was minute,
Their similarity to known
{
f
i: changes in it were sev
precancerous epidermal cytologic changes,
of course,
raised
the question of the ultimate fate of such a lesion should it
‘22
allowed to exizt without surgical
this case,
less
intervention..."
than 0.1 ug of Pu-239
changes in human tissue.
was very intense.
In
produced precancerous
The dose to the ‘surrounding ‘tissue
There is every reason to believe that a
smaller quantity of Pu-239 would have produced similar changes.
This precancerous lesion indicates that a single Pu-239
particle irradiates a significant
(critical)
and is capable of inducing cancer.
46/
volume of tissue
The Lushbaugh study was
Lushbaugh, C.C. and J. Langham, Op. cit., pp.
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