ini ‘heh. Beebe Eat le eee a
ke
ween ee
we
a person with
from animal experiments suggested that
time
that
(at
a maximum permissible body burden
ryboxes,
pen in
of
1 ug} would excrete only 5 x 10” ug (50 pg)
or
minute
per
counts
alpha
(7
plutonium per day
isions,
pen
50 pg per 24-hour specimen).
nose
Oe
Suggesting that the body burdens of plutonium were
many times the acceptable levels.
When a system of
urine collection designed to minimize contamination
ef the urine specimens had been perfected (see
Appendix B), the radioactivity of the urine samples
Nevertheless, the
decreased precipitously.
Table III shows early
‘ried
assay method gave us our first hope of estimating
how much plutonium had actually been deposited in
estimates of body burdens of plutonium based on
ist and
the bodies of our workers.
urine assays, as well as the number of high nose
minute,
Beginning on March 11, 1944, urine samples of
ens of
his -
@ point
c
ity of all high nose counts for each subject .°
To the consternation of everyone, the
Although the correlation between the number of
or oftener.
tionary
re-
radioactivity of the initial 24-hour urine samples
high nose counts and body burden is not good, 8 of
wag of the order of hundreds of counts per minute,
the 11 persons with more than 20 high nose counts
TABLE III
cy bomb
RESULTS OF URINE ASSAYS AND NOSE SWAB COUNTS CONDUCTED ON
illic
LOS ALAMOS PLUTONIUM OPERATORS SHOWING POSITIVE EXPOSURE
cally
Subject
ibs.
Number"
‘rmic
Average
Exposure
Estimated Body
(ug
Late 1944
0.5 - 1.0
2
Late 1944
O.1 - 0.5
and
3
May 1945
1.2
the
4
June 1945
1.2
mM metal
1
Addi-
5
June 1945
1.2
re car-
6
June 1945
1.0
a the
Fused
-n
i, the
ive
a
Sltnce, Callen >. oA OB mk
the
lted
swipes (over 50 counts per minute} and total activ-
members of the Recovery Group were assayed monthly
1.0
Total Number
High Nose Swabs
1°
3°
Total Activity in?
High Nose Swabs (cpm)
11,606
290
37
24
55
4,267
14,968
27,246
32
28
60
22
8,859
15,699
36,407
39,778
7
June 1945
8
June 1945
9
July 1945
1.0
10
July 1945
0.8
July 1946
0.4
24
6
5,334
il
12
July 1945
0.4
23
8,607
13
July 1945
0.3
16
July 1945
0.1
1?
August 1945
0.7
14
18
August 1945
0.6
9
19
August 1945
0.5
20
-
0.7
2,016
5,403
7,762
6,429
2,266
August 1945
0.3
21
August 1945
0.3
22
August 1945
23
0.3
September 1945
0.3
24
September 1945
o.1
2,541
5,107
4,984
25
September 1945
0.1
26
October 1945
0.3
27
October 1945
0.3
a
28
22
11
2,417
7,470
11,688
478
18,342
Subject Nos. 14 and 15 were dropped because of the death of one subject of coronary heart disease and the
low body burden of the other as determined by modern assay techniques.
b
This column was added to the table given in reference 6 and represents the sum of all high
nose counts
(both nostrils).
c
Incomplete records were available for these cases.
11