the absorption, distribution, retention, and excretion of
these radioactive materials.
In addition to evaluating the
metabolic characteristics of these substances, it was necessary
to duplicate as nearly as possible, with laboratory animals,
the manner by which fission product poisoning might occur.
This included a study of the behavior of these radioel ements
following their introduction into the body by the three major
portals of entry, namely inhalation, oral ingestion, and
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No satisfactory estimates or predictions of the possible
metabolic characteristics of most of the fission products
could be made, since most of these substances are radioactive
isotopes of elements concerning whose metabolic properties
very little was known.
In other words, there were no reliable
data avaflable that could’ make it possible tn most instances
to predict which of the fission products would be absorbed
from the digestive tract and rapidly eliminated, once having
gatned entry into the body, and which ones might be selectively
deposited and retained in some vital structure.
Actually,
there was only one fission product, radioiodine, that had
received sufficient study with regard to its metabolic properties, prior to 1942, to permit a reasonale evaluation of the
amount that could be tolerated within the body without producing
damage.
A second fission product, radiostrontium, had been
studied before 1942, but not in sufficient detafl to satisfy
the requirements of the medica)
Plutonium Project.
research progran of the
The nature of the metabolic characteristics
of the other fission products at that date was essentially a
completely unknown quality ....
In addition to the fission products, it was necessary
to evaluate by similar tracer studies the potential dangers
from plutonium poisoning.
This element fs radinactive and