they can remain for long periods of time and deliver a very "intense radiation dose to the surrounding lung tissue. Plutonium is one of the most potent cancer producing ascents known to man. A machinist of plutonium metal carried 0.08 micrograms of plutonium-239 imbedded at the site of she puncture woune in the palm of his hand. Within the four wear period before it was excized, it produced a nodule which Gisslaved srecancerous changes®. There is little doubt from eriment2l animal studies that inhaled plutonium is one of by There is bserved evidence that plutonium concentra- O wy us ce) i cr fu '-! 4 tne mest pctent rasviratory carcinogens known. i- ‘J oO t wa Ww t M4 Wy sions in the lunss of dogs as low as 0.2 microcuries . utonium-239) 7 produce cancer . Hence, (3 micro- the flow of 229 million xilosrams of plutonium represents a flow of over “15 cancer ¢eses, a staggering number which, as will be G€emonstrated subsesuently, may be an underestimate of the cancer Gcses by saveral orders of magnitude. The varsistance of this toxic material, once lost to cma environment, is measured in terms of thousands of years. nly mive-thirds of the plutonium flowing in the nuclear Leishewita, ©.c. and J. Langham, "Archives of "A Dermal Lesion fron Dermatoloay, 86, October 0.C41.curies per gram of plutonium-239. 2 microcurie of plutonium-238 would have a 235 22 2niv f.21 microcrams’since olutoniun-239 nas a mucn niscnar stectiic activity, 17.47 curie¢es per gram.