Plutonium Injection Medical Case File 40-007 (Correspondence, Reports, Charts, Tables, 10/16/45 - 11/27/85)

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Table 1. Plutonium injection cases: Summary of CHR activities and last known Old Case CHR Case CHR Activities status No contacts ; said to have died in Australia No contacts ; cremation ashes No contacts ; case unidentified 1973: Next of kin refused permission to exhume 1973: Next of kin refused and radioactivity measurement 1973: Next of -kiln refused permission to exhume 1973 and 1977: Next ofkin refused permission to exhume Lost to study,

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excretion of plutonium administered to man. Los Alamos Scientific P.W. Durbin. Plutonium i n man: a new look a t the old data.In The Press,Salt Lake city, UT, pp. 469-537 (1972). Robinson. The excretion rate and retention of plutonium 10,000 days after acquisition.In Diagnosis and Treatment of Incorporated Radionuclides, Proc. Seminar, Vienna, 8-12 December 1975, IAEA, Vienna, pp. 15-22 (1976). R.E. Rowland and P.W. Durbin. Survival,causes of death, and estimated tissue doses ina group of human beings injected with plutonium. Health Effects of Plutonium and Radium, Proc. Symp. Sun Valley, Idaho, 6-9 of 239Pu deposited in bone from a human injection case. Effects of Plutonium and Radium, Proc. Symp. Sun Valley, Idaho, 6-9 J. Rundo and F.H. Ilcewicz. Blood content and excretory plasma clearance of plutonium lo4 days after injection. Health Phys. SOC., Atlanta, 3-8 July 1977, Pergamon Press, NY, p.26 R.E. Rowland. The risk of bone sarcoma from plutonium-239. I n Biological Implications of Radio nuclides Released from Nuclear Industries, Proc. Symp., Vienna, 26-30 March 1979, V o l . 11, IAEA, Vienna, pp. 211-224 R.P. Larsen, R.D. Oldham, and R.E. Toohey. Macro distribution of plutonium i n the human skeleton.In Actinides in Man and Animals, Proc. Snowbird Lake City, UT, pp. 191-197 (1981). J. Rundo. The late excretion of plutonium following acquisition of known amounts. In Actinides in Man and Animals, Proc. Snowbird Actinide Workshop, 15-17 October 1979, M.E. Wrenn (Ed.), RD Press, Salt Lake City, R.A. Schlenker and B.G. Oltman. Plutonium micro distribution in human bone. In Actinides in Man and Animals, Proc. Snowbird Actinide Workshop,

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11. R.A. Schlenker and B.G. Oliman. Uranium concentrations in human bone. In Actinides in Man and Animals, Proc. Snowbird Actinide Workshop, 15-17 of plutonium i n hair following intravenous injection. Reprints of references 3-12 are attached.

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Department of Energy Argonne Area Office 9800 South Cass Avenue Dr. Alan Schriesheim, Director Argonne National Laboratory SUBJECT: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA) REQUEST DATED OCTOBER 30, 1985, The enclosed FOIA request is for a copy ofa memo from R. E. Rowland t o H. A. Schultz dated December 21, 1972, which discusses records of 18 plutonium documentation and any subsequent memos regarding the subject. Due to statutory time limitations for responding t o FOIA requests,we must have your response no later than December 2 , 1985. The request or is also asking for any supporting Enc lo sure :

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Freedom of Information and Privacy Act Branch To the FOI Officer : This request is made under the federal Freedom of Information Please send me copies of Memorandum, dated 12-21-72, from Data Processing,Center for Human Radiobiology, Argonne National Lab. Memo discusses instructions from Rowland to Schultz on records of 18 plutonium research subjects. Records were transferred to Schultz for his disposition.Please include any supporting documentation and any subsequent memos regarding this subject. A s you know, the FOI Act provides that if portions of a document are exempt from release, the remainder must be segregated and disclosed. Therefore,I will expect you t o send meall nonexempt portions of the records which I have requested, and ask that you justify any deletions by reference to specific exemptions of the FOI Act.I reserve the right to appeal your decision to withhold any materials. I promise t o pay reasonable search and duplication fees in connection with this request. However, i f you estimate that the total fees will exeed $50, please notify me so thatI may authorize expenditure of a greater amount. Iam prepared to pay reasonable search and duplication fees in connection with this request. However, the FOI Act provides for waiver or reduction of fees if disclosure could be considered as " primarily benefiting the general public." Iam a journalist employed by The Knoxville Journal and intend to use the information Iam requesting as the basis fora planned article. Therefore,I ask that you waive all search and duplication fees.If you deny this request, however, and the fees will exceed $50, please notify me of the charges before you fill my request so that I may decide whether t o pay the fees or appeal your denial of my request for a waiver. As Iam making this request as a journalist and this information i s of timely value,I will appreciate your calling me by telephone,rather than by mail, i f you have any questions. Thanks and 1will look forward t o your reply within 10 business days, as required by law.

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY The attached Freedom of Information (Fc>I) request is being sent to you for action as the records requested appear to be principally within the purview of your organization. If o u t determination is incorrect, please inform r e imdiately to whon you am forwarding this request. If other divisions, offices or field organizations also have records relevant to this request, you as the apprcpriate FOX Office are responsible for requesting their participation and for coordinating the response. It is hportant that an appropriate response be forwarded to the requester within 10 working days as failure to act can be deeda denial. On the reverse side of this memrandum, a "Reminder of Procedures for Handling FDI &quests" should assist your staff. If you have any questions, I can be reached on FE 252-5955. - Chief of FDI and Prlvacy Acts Act i v l ti es Branch Dlvislon of Reference and 1n fomti on hna gernent

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Date Started : 2 January i W 3P r o jec t Name : Plutonium Studies at the Center for Date Terminated: Ongoing Obi ect ives of Test : 1. To determine the excretion rate of plutonium 27 years after injection. 2. To determine the retention and body distribution of plutonium. I n 1945-1947, 18 hospital patients of limited life expectancy were injected with plutonium in order to obtain information about the retention and organ distribution of plutonium. An important objective was to determine the relationship between the body content and the rate of excretion in order to provide data for estimating the body content of plutonium from measurements of The results of this study were described i n The data in LA-1 151 were reviewed ina manuscript prepared by P. W Durbin for publication in the 1972 volume, Radiobiology of Plutonium. Tissue and bone samples had been obtained at autopsy from six of the cases at times ranging from 5 days to 456 days after injection, and the longest collection time for excreta was about 5 years. In addition to preparing the manuscript,' Durbin traced the later history of the cases and discovered that four were still living in 1972. The Center ' s direct knowledge of the plutonium injection cases dates from December 13, 1972, when Dr. Durbin brought her records to CE€X for possible further follow-up, The Center then undertook t o determine excretion rates in study subjects who were still alive and t o exhume deceased subjects in order t o determine the amounts and body distribution of plutonium. During 1973, CHR obtained metabolism samples from three living patients, obtained permission t o exhume from next of kin of three deceased patients, and disinterred and transferred to CHR the remains of one of these deceased. The metabolism samples (blood and excreta) were taken at strong Memorial Hospital (SMH), Rochester, New York. In 1974, theU.S.Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) reviewed the origins and subsequent follow-up of the plutonium studies. On December 31, 1974, the AEC authorized CHR t o proceed with the program of study of the living patients who were injected with plutonium during 1945-1947 and of the bodies of deceased individuals from that group for whom legal consent €or examination is Table 1 summarizes CHR follow-up activities and last known status(July 5, 1984) for each of the plutonium injection cases. CHR peron nel have published 10 reports on results obtained by study of these cases, Q3-12) Copies of these reports are attached.

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ARCONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY Mail stop E-201, Human H salt h Studies Office of Health and Environmental Research Office of the Environment U.S. Department of Energy SUBJECT: Congressional Investigation into Health and Safety Policies of the Department of Energy (DOE) above subject, I have enclosed a fact sheet on "Plutonium Studies at the Center for Human Radiobiology (CHR)." The fact sheet is in the format requested by Please letme know i f you need more information or documentation.

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SUBJECT: Freedom of Information A c t Request We have been unable to locate the memo from Rowland to Schultz dated December 21, 1972 which you requested about 5:15 p.m. yesterday following the receipt of a letter from D. T. Goldman t o A. Schriesheim concerning this matter. A s today is the last business day before the deadline, December 2, further search is not pos sibi e without missing the deadline. complicated by the fact that Rowland retired about two years ago and Schultz Locating this memo is Other intra - laboratory memos on the 18 plutonium research subjects referred to inthe Goldman letter, mention them by name and give personal information about them. The release of such documents would be a violation of the patients ' privacy and the right-to-privacy is protected by law. It would also constitute a violation of normal ethical practice in the handling of patient The subjects referred to have been studied by several organizations since the mid 1940s. Non-personal information can be found in the scientific literature.A good review and guide to the literature up tothe time of its publication can be found in Patricia W. Durbin, "Plutonium i n Man: ANew Look atthe Old Data," pp.469-530, Radiobiology of Plutonium, Edited by Betsy J. Stover and Webster S.S. Jee, Published by the J. W. Press, Department of Anatomy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, 1972.

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PRIVACY ACT MATERIAL REMOVED Reference is made t o your question, t h i s date, regarding informing relatives of plutonium cases t o be exhumed of t h e actual plutonium injections. In reviewing my records, I found t h a t , shortly after having received instructions t o inform survivors, I told (May 10, 1975) that his sister had had plutonium injections. While this does not appear in , of the fact that my records, I do recall that I have informed all plutonium injections had been given t o Ialso informed and, during my last visit, the two brothers, and - t ha; had received plutonium injections. I did not go back t o those relatives of cases t h a t had refused exhumation permissions In all future contacts with relatives of plutonium c a s e s proposed for exhumation, I will make it a special point to.inform t h e m of their deceased relative's exposure and report this disclosure t o file. / , CHR Records Room (7) PRIVACY ACT MATERIAL REMOVED

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TO: CHR Records Room FROM: Jan Lieben, M.D. SUBJECT: Phone calls and contacts Apparently the matter was discussed with _ - he stated it was her express wish t h a t nothing be done withHe knew exactly what I wanted before I even opened t h e subject up. I have found in the many years of experience that our requests cannot be forced on people and that once they s a y "no", unless one c a n change their mind at t h e t i m e - one does not get anywhere - and repeated approaches only annoy visit for purpose of exhumation. He is no blood relative of I . before (not by m e ) and . He reiterated his previous refusal of exhumation Must have been h i s wife who convinced him. Re: , Went to Asheville, N.Y. by plane to visit Numerous phone calls t o number given by operator had produced no replies. No - listed. Stopped at funeral Home. Mr. t lived in but nobody home. Hemay be at - Drove there, "no he is not here is dead but SOL lives at family homestead o n - about 1 2 m i l e s from "downtown". Drove there - house is Spoke t o neighbor one mile away on Mountain Road. in Lower .Larks - o n the other side of town. Returned to Asheville. house - still nobody home. Returned t o Bryson City and found - exhumation. He thinks only his sister, - - Returned to Asheville and Philadelphia. at home. Obtained h i s signature for His phone is listed under his wife's may give u s problems. 0 Sent exhumation permission to M. M. Shanahan. PRIVACY ACT MATERIAL REMOVED

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TO: CHR Records Room FROM: Jan Lieben, M.D. re exhumation of above. (This was at least the12th call) found him finally (2) Wrote letter with exhumation forms to (1) Re: - went to Algonquin Apts. to look for- , talked to superintendent, I' was funny, walked around naked in t h e halls so we had t o throw him out, don't know where h e is". t h e apt. building and asked residents whether they knew the 5th said yes, " h e moved to 86 South Union. 'I Sat down in t h e lobby of (2) Drove to 86 South Union, superintendent i s away for t h e weekend. A said he moved away about 2months ago. Superintendent's name , later looked for him in phone book - is not listed. (3) Returned to 86 South Union, h i s number (the superintendent's) is He may be back on Sunday. ,I- (4) Went to Post Office to check re my letter to Postmaster for forwarding address - closed on Saturday. (5) Re: - Went toY WC A where h e allegedly had worked. The only person who may know about him is , not here today, call PRIVACY ACT MATERIAL REMOVED

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PRIVACY ACT MATERIAL REMOVED INTRA - LABORATORY MEMO TO: CHR Records Room (1) Received permission to exhume- - I from her husband- (2) Mailed both h i s and s o n ' s permission to MMS. Still needed is sister's - (3) Called - in East Whittier, Calif. …