50 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. oe Plutonium has effective radfologic characteristics, yet it inefficiently Z . veer me ne wt nae es 0 —etr moves through environmental and metabolic pathways. Hence, plutonium can be described as having a high toxicity, but a Joy hazard ranking.