[ RadSafe ] ] [Radsafe] News: One worker at Ibaraki facility found with up to 22, 000 becquerels of plutonium in lungs

[Roger Helbig]

Sounds like the comment is way over the top from this -

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9314220

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

Voelz GL1, Lawrence JN, Johnson ER.

Author information

Abstract

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 7.2 Sv
with a median value of 1.25 Sv. As of the end of 1994, 7 individuals
have died compared with an expected 16 deaths based on mortality rates
of U.S. white males in the general population. The standardized
mortality ratio (SMR) is 0.43. When compared with 876 unexposed Los
Alamos workers of the same period, the plutonium worker's mortality
rate was also not elevated (SMR = 0.77). The 19 living persons have
diseases and physical changes characteristic of a male population with
a median age of 72 y (range = 69 to 86 y). Eight of the twenty-six
workers have been diagnosed as having one or more cancers, which is
within the expected range. The underlying cause of death in three of
the seven deceased persons was from cancer, namely cancer of prostate,
lung, and bone. Mortality from all cancers was not statistically
elevated. The effective doses from plutonium to these individuals are
compared with current radiation protection guidelines.

On Wed, Jun 7, 2017 at 4:38 PM, Roger Helbig <rwhelbig at gmail.com> wrote:
> One of the comments says this - Are there indeed such documented cases?
>
> "There are documented cases of workers at nuclear weapons facilities
> dying within days of experiencing brief accidental exposure to
> plutonium, according to the Hazardous Substances Data Bank."
>
> Roger Helbig
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 7, 2017 at 4:30 PM, Nick Tsurikov <nick.tsurikov at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Dear all,
>> The full article in Japan Today:
>> https://japantoday.com/category/national/5-workers-suffer-radiation-exposure-one-with-up-to-22-000-becquerels-of-plutonium-in-his-lungs
>> Kind regards
>> Nick