Report of Ad Hoc Committee re Exhumation Program

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Report of Ad Hoc Committee r e Exhumation Program Report of Ad Hoc Committee convened on May 22, 1974, t o provide recommendations on the scientific merit of studying the fate of plutonium i n deceased persons who had received injections of plutonium The committee consisted of Drs. E. P. Cronkite, Chairman, Medical Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory; M. Goldman, Director, Radiobiology Laboratory, University of California, Davis; B. J. Stover, Professor of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina; and R. V. Talmage, Director of Orthopaedic Research, University of North Carolina. Dr. Stover was the committee chairman. This report is intended only t o be an evaluation of the scientific merit of a proposed program t o exhume t h e bodies of those few persons who received intravenous injections of plutonium during the period 1945-1947. W e are aware of the fact that there area number of related aspects which are of an ethical, medical, or public opinion nature. This report isnot intended t o give our evaluation of these aspects. The unanimous, but qualified, opinion of this committee is that the proposed program of exhumation proceed i n an orderly manner. i f permissions can be obtained for only a few exhumations, the scientific value of the program will be severely limited. on the following considerations : This decision i s based 1. The "Langham equation'' that attempts to relate urinary (and fecal) excretion rates to the amount of plutonium present i n the exposed person was derived from data obtained from this small group of persons that were given plutonium intravenously. developed mainly from early data, one measurement at11 / 2 years, and almost universally by health physicists and radiation protection specialists in estimating body burdens of occupationally exposed obtain a material balance by analyzing the content and distribution of plutonium remaining i n t h e bodies of those persons who were injected with a (small) known amount of plutonium. The results will provide a means of evaluating the validity of estimating burdens by the Langham equation ora modification thereof. This equation, which was Thus it is highly desirable that an effort be made t o 2. Knowledge of the distribution of plutonium in soft tissues, including bone marrow, of humans is also of importance. Results obtained i n the exhumation program could givea much more complete accounting of plutonium metabolism i n man and its distribution other than i n bone. This information is greatly needed for comparison with the distribution of plutonium in laboratory animals.

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REPOSITORY: OFFICE OF HUMAN RADIATION COLLECTION: PLUTONIUM INJECTION INVESTIGATION FOLDER: PLUTONIUM INJECTIONS - GENERAL

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3.Material obtained by exhumation will provide the unique opportunity of identifying and quantifying the microscopic distribution of plutonium with respect to age atthe time of injection and tothe duration of exposure. For example, data can be obtained that will aidin determining the role of surface deposits of a known dose of plutonium a s they may have affected the subsequent activities of adjacent bone forming systems. useful in determining the local effects of plutonium i n terms of radiation dose rates. Such information will be exceedingly 4 . The fact that there is only a small number of persons in the injected group i s considered t o be a handicap, but it is realized that thorough study of the limited material available should provide very useful data. The plutonium exhumation program, however limited, has a s one of its main goals the determination of certain relationships useful in inter - pre ting extensive animal experimentation on plutonium metabolism and toxicity as they may relate to man. excretion studies in the living members of this group are essentially the only mechanism available to the AEC for relating animal studies The exhumation program and continued There are some limitations and problems associated with the proposed exhumation project as follows: The total number of injected persons i s small and, even if all the tissues were to be analyzed, the ability to perform extensive stat is - tical analyses would be minimal. The population consisted of persons of mixed ages a t exposure and all had serious medi,cal-health problems at the time of injection, which somewhat limits the interpretation of data as representing The integrity, completeness, and condition of the bodies t o be exhumed may not be adequate for a satisfactory recapitulation of the plutonium present at death. reactions in the grave may lead to some incorrect interpretations. In particular the ravages of chemical There appears t o be little to be gained by recovery of cremated I n conclusion, the potential usefulness of the results that could be obtained by a carefully planned and conducted exhumation program far outweighs the limitations that can be anticipated in the results. Ideally the results could make possible the comparison of the initial macro- and micro - distribution of plutonium, given by intravenous injection of a known

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amount of a known solution,in humans and in laboratory animals, and the comparison of the differences in the temporal effects on these macro- and micro-distributions that result from the inter - species differences in life - spans and in the kinetics of basic biological estimation of occupational exposures t o plutonium. However, ifthe exhumation program is limited to those few persons who were essentially moribund atthe time of injection and died shortly thereafter, the results that could be obtained would not fulfill the goals of the program. Further, they could lead to serious misinterpretations. With this qualification it appears t o the committee that the AM: should complete these studies that were begun i n 1945, Further, the results could provide a basis for a mre accurate