Re: H-3 in Monkey Breath

[Franz Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 09:26 06.03.2000 -0600, you wrote:
>I'm looking hopefully to RADSAFE for some quick help.  Our researchers
>rarely do in vivo radioisotope work, but now we have a researcher who'd
>like to inject a couple of monkeys each with 5-15 mCi of tritiated
>thymidine.  The monkeys will have survival times of 2-3 weeks before
>sacrifice.  I'm considering the issue of H-3 release into the room air
>as a result of the monkeys' respiration, but have no idea what to
>expect.  Have any of you had experience with this? 

I do not have any particular practical experience, because I would not like
to do work for which I would have to kill monkeys. But what I sure can tell
you: The monkeys will not only exhale tritiated water, they will loose most
of the tritium by urin and faeces and their sweat will contain tritium as
well. (The physiological half life of tritiated water - I do not know for
tritiated thymidine - is for humans about 10 days.) 
Since tritium is a very nasty radionuclide, because it diffuses everywhere,
the laboratory will be pretty contaminated.

Franz




 Can you give me an
>idea to what extent H-3 will appear in the breath and at what rate?  I'm
>grateful for any help you can offer.
>
>Sue Dupre
>Princeton University
>Email:  dupre@princeton.edu
>=======================================================
>Sue M. Dupre, University Health Physicist
>
>Environmental Health and Safety Office
>262 Alexander Street
>Princeton, NJ  08544
>
>Phone:  (609) 258-6252
>Fax:    (609) 258-1804
>
>Visit the EHS Web site at http://www.princeton.edu/~ehs
>
>
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Franz Schoenhofer
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43-1-495 53 08
Fax.: same number
mobile phone: +43-664-338 0 333
e-mail: schoenho@via.at


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