[ RadSafe ] lethal amount of Po-210
John R Johnson
idias at interchange.ubc.ca
Thu Dec 14 18:08:54 CST 2006
Franz et al
The international accepted model for Po-210 radiation protection dose
calculations is given in Section 12 of ICRP Publication 67. This is for
cancer induction and (I think) should be modified for "early" lethal
effects. The doses to adults per Bq ingested are (Table 12.2)
Organ Sv/Bq
Adrenals 2.8 x E -07
Bladder Wall 2.8 x E -07
Bone Surfaces 1.6 x E -06
Brain 2.8 x E -07
Breast 2.8 x E -07
GI Tract
St wall 2.8 x E -07
SI wall 2.8 x E -07
ULI 2.9 x E -07
LLI wall 3.2 x E -07
Kidneys 1.5 x E -05
Liver 6.6 x E -06
Lungs 2.8 x E -07
Muscle 2.8 x E -07
Ovaries 2.8 x E -07
Red marrow 2.8 x E -07
Skin 2.8 x E -07
Testes 2.8 x E -07
Thyroid 2.8 x E -07
Uterus 2.8 x E -07
Remainder 6.6 x E -06
Effective Dose 1.2 x E -06
My question; What dose to which organs caused the death in this case?
John
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John R Johnson, Ph.D.
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-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl]On
Behalf Of Franz Schönhofer
Sent: December 14, 2006 2:41 PM
To: 'Toro Laszlo'; radsafe at radlab.nl
Subject: AW: [ RadSafe ] lethal amount of Po-210
Dear Laszlo,
By chance I have been in London during the days when it became known, that a
person had been poisoned by Po-210. TV showed clearly a chemist, who was
using a beaker, which was stirred - with other words, this was without any
doubt the well known plating of Polonium to a disc of whatever suitable
metal (Ag, Cu,....). Knowing the expertise of our collegues from England
very well I cannot assume that they intended to measure traces of Po-210 by
gamma-spectrometry.
You did not specify, which method you used for your survey on childrens
urine in the 80's. Not really being an expert in dose calculation from
intake I still have a feeling, that the concentrations of Po-210 in urine
are by orders of magnitude to high. Values of up to 3 Bq/l urine are
scaring. Compare that to the recommendation of the European Union on Pb-210
and Po-210 concentrations in drinking water!
Please give me further information - I hope I am wrong.
Best regards,
Franz
Franz Schoenhofer
PhD, MR iR
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
AUSTRIA
phone -43-0699-1168-1319
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] Im
> Auftrag von Toro Laszlo
> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 14. Dezember 2006 14:19
> An: radsafe at radlab.nl
> Betreff: [ RadSafe ] lethal amount of Po-210
>
> Dear Collegues,
>
> In the absence of quantitative information related to
> the amount of Po-210, I made some calculations started
> from ther information:
> "How do we know it is Polonium-210?
> Analysis of samples taken from the deceased person
> identified Polonium-210 through its characteristic but
> weak emission of gamma rays. This and further tests
> are consistent with the deceased person having had a
> large intake of Polonium-210. "
> (http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=2086)
> Assuming:
> - they used a 30-40% relative efficiency well type
> HPGe based gamma spectrometer
> - a minimal value of a peak area (at 803keV) to be
> considered by a skilled gamma spectrometrist "as peak"
> about 2-3 E-3 ips (about 400-500 impulses in the whole
> peak in 2E5 seconds)
> -the measured sample is an urine sample taken after
> 7days from the ingestion (some source give 8 of
> November the admitance in the hospital)
> Results:
> - the minimal activity measured in the sample is about
> 4000Bq
> -the total ingested activity at 1 of November is
> between 4-21MBq (0.1-0.6mCi; some tens-hundred ngram)
> -the dose (according ICRP 67 dose factors) is 5-25 Sv
> If somebody is interested in the whole calculations
> and assumtions I can send it privatelly (it was a good
> exercice for dose reconstruction).
> Regarding the "mass tests" for Po-210, I found some
> old results in our files:
> Po-210 in urine
> 1983(samples from 70 subjects, children between
> 10-15y, from three rural communities) 304 mBq/l
> (extreme values 222-518 mBq/l)
> 1983(samples from 77 subjects, children between
> 10-15y, from other three rural communities but
> fundamentally different habits) 1.88 Bq/l (extreme
> values 148-2930 mBq/l)
> 1988 (collective sample from 20 subjects, children
> between 10-15y, from a school from Timisoara) 82mBq/l
> with no significant difference femal/male.
> It seems everybody of us should be found "positive"
> against a Po-210 test.
> Sorry for this long message.
>
> Laszlo Toro
>
> ======================================================================
> Laszlo Toro PhD
> senior scientist
>
> Institute of Public Health Timisoara
> Radiation Hygiene Dept.
>
> RO 300226 Timisoara
> Bd. V. Babes 16-18
> Romania
> ph. +40 256 492101 ext 34
> fax +40 256 492101
> e-mail toro at ispt.ro
> torolaszlo at yahoo.com
> ======================================================================
>
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