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The risk of bone sarcoma from plutonium-239. It is postulated that the risk of bone sarcoma induction by pu-239 in humans can be quantitated from a consideration of the well-documented induction of bone sarcomas by ra-226, 228. The basic assumption is that the risk of this malignancy is a function of the energy deposited by alpha particles in the layer of cells adjacent to bone surfaces. From calculations of the energy delivered to the cellular layer by bone-deposited pu-239 and ra-226. The ratio of the systemic intakes required to produce equal bone-cell doses is obtained. A dose-response relationship of the form of i = beta d2e-gamma d was found to provide the best fit to the observed bone-sarcoma incidence for female radium dial workers, where i was the number of bone sarcomas per person year of risk and d was the quantity of radium that entered the systemic circulation. It is proposed that such an expression, modified for the energy effectiveness of plutonium compared with radium, provides the best estimate of the risk of induction of bone sarcomas by pu-239. The derived risk estimate is tested by comparing its predictions of bone sarcomas in two groups of people carrying known body burdens of plutonium. The predictions are not contradicted by the lack of any observed bone sarcomas in either the 27 workers exposed at los alamos during world war ii, or in the 18 seriously ill cases injected with plutonium in 1945-47. Its form permits an immediate evaluation of the risk at any level of intake.
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