tritium (HTO) hazard. -Reply

[FRAMEP@ORAU.GOV]

>As an added note, in that emergency situation, the pathway giving
>the highest dose is direct skin contact with the liquid.

Radsafe is not a forum for stories but that comment by Les reminded
me of a nice health physics - human radiation experiment tale. What
the heck, its Friday. The story can be found in Stannards'
"Radioactivity and Health". Carl Gamertsfelder, the protagonist
(second guy to use the title Health Physicist and the only HP present
when CP-1 went critical), lives in Knoxville and tells a slightly
different version.

At Hanford  ca 1950, biologist Harry Kornberg was trying to find out
how much tritium was absorbed via inhalation vs through the skin. He
used Carl, the head HP, as a test subject. For a week, Carl had a
funnel filled with HTO attached to his arm. Kornberg looked at the
tritium eliminated in Carl's urine. One night, Carl removed the
funnel and used his wife's paints to fake scar tissue. When Kornberg
saw the "scar", he  hit the roof and later said "I couldn't believe
what I saw". Carl had to own up a day later and got in a fair bit of
trouble for it. 

When the total number of "human radiation experiments" is reported, I
believe that experiment is counted as one of them (as well as the
other studies the researchers performed on themselves).   

TGIF

Paul