Re: Pu Toxicity

[don@radpro.uchicago.edu]

The following table appears on page 368 of "Radioactivity and Health-
A History" by J Newell Stannard, U.S. Department of Energy, Pacific 
Northwest Laboratories, Battelle Memorial Institute, 1988:  

Acute Toxicity of Plutonium Compared to "Supertoxics"
__________________________________________________________________________
Substance                         LD50         Route       Test Organism
__________________________________________________________________________
Botulinus Toxin A              5X10E-6 ug/kg     IPR            Mouse
Crystalline Botulinus Toxin    7X10E-9 ug/kg     IPR            Mouse
Diptheria Toxin                1X10E-4 ug/kg     IPR            Mouse
Bufotoxin                          390 ug/kg     IV             Cat
Curare                             500 ug/kg     IPR            Mouse
Strychnine                         500 ug/kg     IPR            Mouse
Potassium Cyanide                  0.3 mg/l      INH            Human
Hydrogen Cyanide                   1.0 mg/kg     INH            Human
Methyl Mercury                       7 mg/kg     Ingestion      Guinea Pig
Arsenic Trioxide                  1000 mg/kg     Ingestion      Human

Plutonium                          0.3 mg/kg     IV             Dog
                                   1.4 mg/kg     IV             Rat
                                   1.3 mg/kg     IV             Mouse
____________________________________________________________________________

IPR=Intraperitoneal; IV=Intravenous; INH=Inhalation
____________________________________________________________________________

Several caveats:

The lethal doses of the botulinus and diptheria toxins strike me as 
incredibly low.  Also the unit for the dose of potassium cyanide, mg/litre, 
doesn't make a lot of sense-though it does for HCN. 

The source for these numbers is cited as a previous work of the author, 
which is not too useful.

I recommend taking a look at this chapter on Plutonium in this book for
another reason: it contains two tables, on p. 352 and 356, which list 
the WW2 plutonium injection experiments and cite earlier publications
as sources.  

 

___________________________________________________________________

Don Jordan                          Tel. (312) 702-6299
Office of Radiation Safety          Fax        702-4008
The University of Chicago           email: don@radpro.uchicago.edu

           -- Opinions expressed are soley the author's --