- -5- e they can remain for tong periods of time. and deliver a very oon - intense radiation dose to the surrounding lung tissue. Plutonium is one of the most potent cancer producing agents known to man. A machinist of plutonium metal carried 0.08 micrograms of plutonium-239 imbedded at the site of the puncture wound in the palm of his hand. Within the four year period before it was excized, it produced a nodule which displayed precancerous changes®. There is little doubt from experimental animal studies that inhaled plutonium is one of the most poteht respiratory carcinogens known. There is experimental and observed evidence that plutonium concentra- tions in the lungs of dogs as low as 0.2 microcuries grams of plutonium-239) produce cancer’, (3 micro- Hence, the flow of 200 million kilograms of plutonium represents a flow of over 1017 cancer doses, a staggering number which, as wili be demonstrated subsequently, may be an underestimate of the cancer doses by several orders of magnitude. ~~ e The persistance of this toxic material, once lost to oc the environment, is measured in terms of thousands of years. Roughly two-thirds of the plutonium flowing in the nuclear a S/ Lushbauch, C.C.-and J. Langham, "A Dermal Lesion from Implanted Plutonium,” Archives of Dermatclocy, 86, October 1962, pp. 121-124... i wt uw Two-tenths of a microcurie of plutonium-238 wouls kh mass of only 0.01 micrograms Since plutonium-2se n much higher specific activity, 17.47 curies per gran. 0 There are 0.061 curies per gram of plutonium-22 9. po) _if/