Fifty years of plutonium exposure to the Manhattan Project plutonium workers: an update.

Twenty-six white male workers who did the original plutonium research and development work at Los Alamos have been examined periodically over the past 50 y to identify possible health effects from internal plutonium depositions. Their effective doses range from 0.1 to 7.

Cumulative genetic damage in hematopoietic stem cells in a patient with a 40-year exposure to alpha particles emitted by thorium dioxide.

Thorotrast, a colloidal suspension of the long-lived radionuclide, thorium-232, was widely used as a radiographic contrast medium for several decades. Due to the poor excretion of the sol, however, Thorotrast would deposit in the liver, bone marrow and other tissue, and patients would receive alpha-particle irradiation for life. To gauge the cumulative genetic damage to hematopoietic stem cells due to chronic exposure to alpha particles, we conducted a multi-end-point evaluation in a 72-year-old man who had been administered a 32-ml bolus of Thorotrast during cerebral angiography performed over 40 years ago in 1950.

Mortality through 1990 among white male workers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory: considering exposures to plutonium and external ionizing radiation.

A cohort mortality study was conducted of 15,727 white men employed by the Los Alamos National Laboratory, a nuclear research and development facility. Some of the workers at this facility have been exposed to various forms of ionizing radiation and other potentially hazardous materials. These analyses focused on whole-body ionizing radiation exposures and internal depositions of plutonium.

Health considerations for workers exposed to plutonium.

It is interesting to observe that today the discussions, public concerns, and legal battles over health risks presented by Pu are not only vigorous but also accelerating. Our knowledge of the biochemistry, pathophysiology, dosimetry, and radiobiology of Pu has increased enormously during the intervening 45+ years since the first experiments. For the first time in the history of science and industry, extensive epidemiologic studies are being conducted on the majority of all people in this country who have worked with a material since its introduction and before anyone has had any known acute or chronic illness from exposure to it.