Re: plutonium

["Otto G. Raabe" <ograabe@ucdavis.edu>]

October 8, 1997
Davis, CA

Except for the one bone cancer case (which may not have been related to
plutonium exposure) in Voelz's paper on 26 workers, I know of no documented
cases in the United States of anyone who has developed cancer from intakes
of plutonium. This is true even though hundreds, perhaps thousands, have
been exposed in the nuclear industry and there have been epidemiological
studies that sought to find effects. This attests to the safety standards
that have been in force. I have heard that the Russians were not so careful
and they have some human effects data. As for the rest of world, the only
information we have on dose-response relationships comes from studies with
laboratory animals including rodents and beagles at very high doses. The
lowest life-time dose to the lungs that leads to radiation-induced lung
cancer in the Pu-239 beagle studies is about 0.9 Gy or 1800 rem. (See
Chapter 30 in "Internal Radiation Dosimetry", Medical Physics Publishing
Company, 1994).

Otto
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		Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
                [President, Health Physics Society, 1997-1998]
		Institute of Toxicology & Environmental Health (ITEH)
		     (Street address: Old Davis Road)
		University of California, Davis, CA 95616
		Phone: 916-752-7754     FAX: 916-758-6140
		E-Mail: ograabe@ucdavis.edu
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