[ RadSafe ] Depleted Uranium Found In Urine 20 Years Later

[John R Johnson]

Radsafers

Here is the "copy and pasted" abstract from 
http://www.health-physics.com/pt/re/healthphys/abstract.00004032-200602000-00003.htm;jsessionid=HlZNK2lvVVxsy93jQvvTLjnCLnXFLXHbJbHZbD2FhW5JmS16tVn4!1071114923!181195629!8091!-1?index=1&database=ppvovft&results=1&count=10&searchid=2&nav=search

DETERMINATION OF 238U/235U, 236U/238U AND URANIUM CONCENTRATION IN URINE 
USING SF-ICP-MS AND MC-ICP-MS: AN INTERLABORATORY COMPARISON.

Paper

Health Physics. 90(2):127-138, February 2006.
Parrish, Randall R. *; Thirlwall, Matthew F. +; Pickford, Chris ++[S]; 
Horstwood, Matthew **; Gerdes, Axel **++; Anderson, James ++; Coggon, David 
++++
Abstract:
mdash;: Accidental exposure to depleted or enriched uranium may occur in a 
variety of circumstances. There is a need to quantify such exposure, with 
the possibility that the testing may post-date exposure by months or years. 
Therefore, it is important to develop a very sensitive test to measure 
precisely the isotopic composition of uranium in urine at low levels of 
concentration. The results of an interlaboratory comparison using sector 
field (SF)-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and 
multiple collector (MC)-ICP-MS for the measurement of uranium concentration 
and 235U/238U and 236U/238U isotopic ratios of human urine samples are 
presented. Three urine samples were verified to contain uranium at 1-5 ng 
L-1 and shown to have natural uranium isotopic composition. Portions of 
these urine batches were doped with depleted uranium (DU) containing small 
quantities of 236U, and the solutions were split into 100 mL and 400 mL 
aliquots that were subsequently measured blind by three laboratories. All 
methods investigated were able to measure accurately 238U/235U with 
precisions of ~0.5% to ~4%, but only selected MC-ICP-MS methods were capable 
of consistently analyzing 236U/238U to reasonable precision at the ~20 fg 
L-1 level of 236U abundance. Isotope dilution using a 233U tracer 
demonstrates the ability to measure concentrations to better than +/-4% with 
the MC-ICP-MS method, though sample heterogeneity in urine samples was shown 
to be problematic in some cases. MC-ICP-MS outperformed SF-ICP-MS methods, 
as was expected. The MC-ICP-MS methodology described is capable of measuring 
to ~1% precision the 238U/235U of any sample of human urine over the entire 
range of uranium abundance down to <1 ng L-1, and detecting very small 
amounts of DU contained therein.

John

***************
John R Johnson, PhD
CEO, IDIAS, Inc.
4535 West 9th Ave
Vancouver, B. C.
V6R 2E2, Canada
(604) 222-9840
idias at interchange.ubc.ca




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steven Dapra" <sjd at swcp.com>
To: "Dan W McCarn" <hotgreenchile at gmail.com>
Cc: <radsafe at radlab.nl>
Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2007 9:53 PM
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] Depleted Uranium Found In Urine 20 Years Later


> Oct. 28
>
>         Parrish's study was published in Health Physics.  The citation is: 
> 90(2):127-38; 2006 Feb.  The title is "Determination of 238U/235U, 
> 236U/238U and uranium concentration in urine using SF-ICP-MS and 
> MC-ICP-MS: An interlaboratory comparison."
>
>         Here is a link to the PubMed abstract: 
> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=16404170
>
> Steven Dapra
> sjd at swcp.com
>
>
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