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USTUR 0785: Rocky Flats — 1957 Wound/Inhalation — 239Pu Nitrate in the Presence of Hydrogen Peroxide — Chelated
Intake
This registrant worked at Rocky Flats for 32 years.
1957: A precipitation box exploded when hydrogen peroxide was added to an acidic plutonium nitrate feed solution. This resulted in four contaminated facial wounds. The registrant’s face, hair, neck, hands, and forearms were contaminated to >100,000 cpm and initial nose swipes and nasal discharge were too high to be measured. Material was taken into the body via wounds, inhalation, and ingestion.
1976: The registrant lacerated his finger when a uranium ingot rolled off of a pallet.
Health Physics
Initial wound depositions measured 0.93 µg, 2.13 µg, 0.47 µg, and 0.42 µg of plutonium on the upper temple, lower temple, upper chin, and lower chin, respectively. Three weeks after the 1957 explosion, a plastic surgeon excised a total of approximately 3.2 µg of plutonium from the wounds. A recheck of the wounds after healing showed that no radioactive material remained in the upper temple and the two chin wounds. The lower temple still contained about 0.5 µg of plutonium.
About 500 urine samples were analyzed for plutonium in the 44 years following the 1957 incident. The results range from 5700 dpm/24-hr (two days after the accident) to <MDA. About 75 blood and 70 fecal samples were analyzed for plutonium and the health physics records contain results for 100 americium- and 45 uranium-in-urine measurements. A low fecal:urine ratio was observed in early samples, which indicates that the systemic uptake was primarily from the wounds.
The health physics records also contain external whole body, liver, wound, and gut counts (of 241Am).
Chelation
Chelation therapy was initiated on the day of the accident. The registrant was treated with 1-2 g Ca-EDTA twice daily for four weeks post-exposure. Nine months after the incident he was given 2 g Ca-EDTA twice daily for two weeks, and seven years after the incident he was given eleven 1-g doses of Zn-DTPA over the course of ten weeks.
Industrial Hygiene
The registrant was exposed to HF and, according to self-reported records, worked with beryllium and asbestos.
Autopsy and Pathology
The registrant died at age 79 from mesothelioma.
Contemporary Dose Estimates
Systemic deposition of Pu (1987): 219 nCi
Internal cumulative EDE (2001): 581 rem
To use USTUR narrative data, please cite:
USTUR 0785: Rocky Flats — 1957 Wound/Inhalation — 239Pu Nitrate in the Presence of Hydrogen Peroxide — Chelated: Narrative. United States Transuranium and Uranium Registries. 8 August 2009. Washington State University: College of Pharmacy. Accessed 23 November 2009. Available at: http://www.ustur.wsu.edu/Case_Studies/Narratives/0785_Narrative.php.
This page was last updated on July 8, 2009. usturwebmaster@tricity.wsu.edu