Re: "Normal" concentration of tritium in urine

[Bob Flood <bflood@SLAC.Stanford.EDU>]

At 02:20 PM 10/20/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Can anyone give me a value or range of values of what could be
>considered a normal result for a tritium bioassay? This should be the
>value(s) one would expect to get from an average member of the public.

I don't have any numbers for you, but...

If there is detectable "environmental" tritium in people, it is a local
phenomenon, i.e., the amount depends on where you are and the source of the
tritium. Thus, one size won't fit all: an average value or a range of
values would apply only to one place and not to anywhere else.

If you want to compare H-3 levels in workers with those in not
occupationally exposed, you need to collect samples from unexposed people,
those at the facility that don't enter controlled areas or deal with
radioactivity at all. What your analytical methods can detect in this group
will be the quantity to compare to what you find in exposed individuals.


Bob Flood
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
(415) 926-3793     bflood@slac.stanford.edu
Unless otherwise noted, all opinions are mine alone.