Executive Summary 1995
This report documents the activities of the United States Transuranium and Uranium Registries for the year October 1, 1994 through September 30, 1995. Administrative accomplishments during the year included the publication of a new brochure, the Annual newsletter and renewal of all active registrants. Records and files were microfilmed and the microfilmed duplicates were stored in a protected location in the campus library. In response to a request from the president’s Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, the Registries provided information and specific documentation pertaining to human subjects consideration. The Registries program was found to be ethically sound and in full compliance with all applicable regulation.
A Registries home page was created on the World Wide Web. In addition to general information about the Registries program, it includes summaries of the two most recent Annual Reports; a list of publication; and access to the Registries database. The Registries home page address is www.tricity.WSU.edu/htmls/ustur/page1.html. Considerable progress was made with respect to computerization of the database; the data base now includes, in addition to the administrative information on all registrants, radiochemical result for all tissues collected at autopsy and health physics information including radio urinalysis results and other dosimetry data for all deceased registrants. In progress are a table of the health history for all registrants and a clinical history table.
During the reporting period, Registries staff authored or coauthored more than 45 scientific papers or abstracts published or submitted for publication in the open peer reviewed scientific literature and presented more than two dozen scientific paper, seminars, and public presentations. The Director was named Hartman Medalist and Orator by the Radiology Centennial and was also the recipient of the Herbert M. Parker Award.
The radiochemistry laboratory became fully operational with primary effort devoted to reduction of the sample backlog received from Los Alamos National Laboratory and to quality assurance. Quality assurance intercomparisons with the University of Washington and Los Alamos National Laboratory were carried out and revealed no indications of random or systematic error.
Evaluation of USTUR Case 0259, a whole body donor who had incurred an acute inhalation intake of high fired 238PuO2 18 years prior to death, revealed a systemic distribution pattern of 238 isotope of plutonium not significantly different from that observed for 239Pu. About half the total body burden of 238Pu was found in the liver, but only 37 percent in the skeleton. There was, however, considerably less activity in the respiratory tract than would be expected on the basis of current models, and this observation, coupled with the urinary excretion pattern observed during life, are indicative of more rapid clearance of the 238 isotope from the respiratory tract as compared with 239Pu, likely attributable to particle breakup because of the higher specific activity and consistent in this regard with what has been observed in animal studies.
Examination of tissue concentration ratios for both plutonium and americium in Registries cases as a function of time after intake suggests that there are no significant differences in the retention half-time among the various soft tissues as compared with the liver. Teeth were evaluated as a means of estimating total skeletal content of plutonium of americium. No consistent relationship was found between plutonium and americium concentration or content in the teeth and in the skeleton as a whole. The activity concentration in certain bones, notably the ribs, was found to be a constant fraction of the average skeletal concentration, and these bones can thus be used to estimate total skeletal content of actinide making appropriate assumptions relative to the mass of the skeleton.
Cytogenetic studies were initiated utilizing glycophorin-A and fluorescence in situ hybridization techniques to examine circulating red blood cells in person with a known history of exposure to the actinide elements with the ultimate goal of utilizing stable chromosome changes to quantify exposure to the actinide elements.
The feasibility study was completed for joint USTUR-Russian research collaboration. This work documented the similarities and differences between the Registries of the two countries and a plan was developed for future effort.
This page was last updated on May 1, 2007. usturwebmaster@tricity.wsu.edu
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