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FACT SHEET ON MANHATTLNENGINEER DISTRICT (MED) PLUTONTUM EXCRETION STUDIES Purpose of Study: To determine excretion rate for plutonium in man. Need : 1) Several thousand MED workers 2 ) Accurate information needed on retention and excretion of internal plutonium for setting safety criteria. 3) Animal experiments produced conflicting data which could not be extrapolated to man. Protocol: Selected hospitalized patients injected with various amounts of soluble plutonium. collected, measured and recorded for plutonium discharge for several weeks after injection. Between April, 1945 and July, 1947 (AEC established in January, 1947. One patient injected after that, Strong Nemorial Hospital of the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York. (11) Billings Hospital of the University o f Chicago, University Hospital o f the University of California, Where: MED Hospital in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. (1) The three university hospitals were associated with MED contractor laboratories and some staff members held joint appointments at the hospital and the MED
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By combination o f age and health with a life expectancy from an existing disease of less than10years. Most patients involved were diagnosed as having some disease which would be fatal within a shorter period.Deviation from these criteria occurred.In one case, the diagnosis later proved tobe Survival Time after Injections : Cause o f Death: All deaths in first three years related deaths unrelated to plutonium exposure (pneumonia and heart disease). no evidence to suggest that the plutonium injection influenced the course of the By current standards for a body burden Range from 2to145 (1 case) Amounts of PU Injected : Scientific References to Study : Passing references to this study have been made in the scientific literature from time t~ time. written between 1946 and 1950 by people associated with the Several reports on the study were Many remained classified until about 1969-1971.
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Several unclassified reports were published over the years. plutonium: in Industrial Medicine on the Plutonium Project (R. S. Stone, Editor), National Nuclear Energy Series, Division IV, V o l . 20, McGraw-Hill, New York, 246-263 (1951). exposures in man: Health Phys. 10:373-389 (1964). plutonium in human feces: J. Biol. Chem. 172:185-190 (1948). The definitive discussion of the study was in a chapter by D r . Patricia Durbin entitled "Plutonium in Nan: A New Look at the Old Data," which was included in the book Radiobiolo University of Utah. of Plutonium published in 1972 by the J. W. Press4o Recent Studies of Surviving Patients: In 1972 DT. Patricia Durbin, who had accumulated data on study for book chapter, explored possibility of following up living In 1973 DT. Durbin transferred information and records to Dr. Rowland and the Center f o r Human Radiobiology (CHR) at Argonne National Laboratory. CHR arranged for follow up study of three of the four living patients and for exhumation of the body of two deceased patients. In 1974 two papers on follow up were prepared f o r International Congress of Radiation Research meeting in Seattle.