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Recently, Thompson and Wachholz (1980) estimated the number of cancer
deaths in the United States due to fallout plutonium.
They calculated that as
upper limits, a total of 125 deaths would occur, with 64 (51%) lung cancers,
27 (22%) bone cancers, and 34 (27%) liver cancers.
They also noted, however,
that the possibility of no cancer deaths fron fallout plutonium was not
precluded.
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Plutonium has effective radfologic characteristics, yet it inefficiently
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moves through environmental and metabolic pathways.
Hence, plutonium can be
described as having a high toxicity, but a Joy hazard ranking.