[ RadSafe ] RE UK Press report Depleted uranium tests for UStroopsreturning from Iraq

[James Salsman]

Fred Dawson wrote:

> Info on the UK voluntary screening programme for UK Service
> personnel and civilians who have served in the Balkans and
> Gulf veterans can be found at
>
> http://www.duob.org.uk/

The UK DUOB's urine test assumes that most exposure is to
compounds of ICRP solubility class W (clearance half-time
of 10 to 100 days) such as UO2 or U3O8.  Those uranium(IV)
compounds are much less harmful than uranyl uranium(VI)O2 ion.

In reality, the dangerous uranyl exposure is from UO3, which
forms as a gas vapor, not particulate solid matter, when
uranium burns in oxygen.  UO3(g) has a half-time in the
lung of no more than one minute, placing it firmly in the
ICRP solubility class D, and nowhere near class W.

Urine testing for inhaled uranium vapor fumes is therefore
unreliable.  A mass spectrograph of accumulating tissue (e.g.,
bone surface or liver) is necessary because of the likelihood
that exposure patterns to the particulate dust is different
than that of the UO3(g) vapors.

ACKERMANN, RJ, et al., J PHYS CHEM, 1960, v.64, p.350
  http://www.bovik.org/du/2bibs.html

Sincerely,
James Salsman