Plutonium Injection Medical Case File 40-013 (Correspondence, Tables, Charts, Death Certificate, 2/08/46 - 11/27/85)

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SUBJECT: Freedom of Information 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 possible without missing the deadline.Locating this memo i s complicated by the fact that Rowland retired about two years ago and Schultz 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 i n 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 o f Anatomy, University of Utah, Salt lake City,1972.

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SUBJECT: Trip report t o Rochester, N.Y. Octc-er 14-1 ,1977 Visited niece of above, at her home a t Trailer Park, near regarding exhumation of above - learned that her uncle had just celebrated his 92nd birthday. that she was not niece, but there a r e 5 natural nieces and nephews - She also informed m e w a s her nephew and that I both live on Main Street ) Bergen, New York South Street, Leroy, New York , Batavia, New York Visited a nd at their residence on Main Street, Bergen, N.Y. Informed t h e m of our needs - both seemed agreeable and will probably give permission - after death of husband. Visit to rest of family was in Rochester and the only time he could see mewas Visited Rochester (Irondegroit). Discussed our request - obtained his signature for the exhumation. lives a t Murraysville, near Pittsburgh, PA. Received a call from grandson of address I forwarded them to him. Ivb. 65240. He wanted exhumation forms and newspaper clippings.

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. SUBJECT: Plutonium Exhumation Cases Reference is made to your question, t h i s date, regarding informing relatives of plutonium cases to be exhumed of t h e actual plutonium injections. In reviewing my records, I found that, 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 m y records , I do recall thatI have informed all and of the fact that plutonium injections had been given to and, during my last visit, the two I did not g o back t o those relatives of cases that had refused exhumation permissions prior t o 1975, namely (40-007), (40-008), and .-__ 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 them of their deceased relative's exposure and report this disclosure to file.

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LAB0 RATORY PRIVACY ACT MATERIAL REMC’JED INTRA - LABORATORY MEMO TO: CHR Records Room FROM: Jan Lieben, M.D. SUBJECT: Rochester Plutonium Cases injections, has been exhumed, and reinterred.* Thanked him for h i s help. Plutonium did not seem to register. - -, that his sister had plutonium He said hewas glad tobe of help. Re. Drove t o Prestige Acres-now Batavia, Route 3 3 ( e a s t of Batavia). Visited niece, * H e ‘ s still in the nursing home so we’ll She d o e s not know whether family will go along his 90th birthday in better health. have t o continue t o wait. this - we have sickness in the family. Fairport, Rochester. “ This is a bad time to discuss Call m e next time you are here. I’ that there had been a delay in returning his sister ’ s body, but this would be done soon. PRIVACY ACT MATERIAL REMOVED

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&&% CENTER FOR HUMAN RADIO BIO LOG YU of C AUA USAEC Argonne National Laboratory 0 Massachusetts institute of Technology New Jersey Field Station Southwest Field Station SUBJECT : Exhumation Cases, Enclosed are copies of the death certificates on four persons who received radium injections at the Mayo Clinic( dated March 27, March 3 , March 14,and March 7respectively. The memos will give you the next - o f - kin for these four Mayo Clinic and together with copies of various memos to file received 50 p,g of radium chloride in 1927 for i n 1925 for hypertension.received25 pg of radium chloride in 1925 for Bu e rger ' s disease. ' received25 pg of radium chloride in 1925 for carcinoma of the stomach. I have just heard from Dr.S teh ney that he is quite anxious , and for any plutonium cases on whom you have been given to obtain exhumation permission for these cases, for SOUTHWEST FIELD STATION

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LAB9RAT0RY PRIVACY ACT MATERIAL REMOVED INTRA - LABORATORY MEMO TO: CHR Records Room FROM: Jan Lieben, M.D. SUBJECT: Visits and phone calls Called undertaker in Rochester request for information, second*for reply. All we have: He was the owner of a cigar store, hewas single, h e ’ s buried on . - a t Cemetery. . was probably his mother, no other relatives listed. Will check who else is buried a t cemetery, there are 6 in the lot. Called re exhumation of his wife both he and his daughter promised t o sign forms for exhumation. W e will now have to get permissions from the rest of family who have not signed a s yet. Phone East Whittier, Callfornia. Visits re: and Drove to Batavia N.Y. re: Dr. Wilson Swasey is listed address - 207 Summit: 343-7227. checked phone book none listed. Drove t o Stafford, N.Y. to post office. lives a t above address found her with difficulty, she is a niece by marriage. home in Bethany near Batavia is not too well. a n exhumation, and would be terribly upset. and nieces all in t h e Batavia area: - and in now but to check with t h e nephews and nieces. Park on route 33 near Batavia, phone . Drove t o husband now 88 years old lives in t h e Genesee He would never permit There are also several nephews in Leroy on South Street. It w a s decided not to contact in about a year ana then maybe contact

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Drove t o Geneseo, N.Y., no listed in the phone book. Drove t o Rectors Funer home, met present owner, also secretary of Temple Cemetery Mr. Frank Hicks. Only has records since1950. may have them, she lives on did not know Drove to above address,No,I don't have anything, don't know the people. and his wife are dead. There wasa son but I don't remember where h e is, maybe the post office does. Spoke to Town Clerk, Yes,I remember them. Drove t o t h e post office, no knowledge exczpt they left long time ago. Went to the Bank, yes, one of the tellers may know. Talked t o her. The moved t o Street. Their old address, 15 Elizabeth Street has been torn down, later they moved t o maybe knows. Called her, N o , I don't know where i s call s h e may know. Called above, Yes, is in Rochester, Called Rochester Information: is listed - Did not call will check on next Rochester visit. By: Jan Lieben, M.D.

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Argonne National Laboratory Massachusetts Institute of Technology * New Jersey Field Station 8 Soclrhv/;st Field Station SUBJECT: Exhumation of CHR cases with prefix number 40. Enclosed are folders containing Copies of all CHR informaiion on t e n radioactivity patients in the "40" series. These are all the cases in this series for which we now have death certificates. Please take the necessary steps to locate r datives and obtain permissions to exhume any or all of these ten persons. It should be noted that we want to examine the remains in order to determine the microscopic distribution of residual radioactivity from past medical treatment. Center for Human Radiobiology Today, I received from A. F. Stehney copies of foldsrs for the following MIT Radioactivity Center 8 0 0 1 4 1 1 Avenue. Argonne, Illinois 60-13 Tel. 312-73-7h,E x t . 4625

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PRIVACY ACT MATERIAL REMOVED PRIVACY ACT MATERIAL REMOVED i 8 0 0 I f?y 0703 Cass Avcnue, Argor r e, Illinois 60439 Tcv-. p n e 312-730-7711

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PRIVACY ACT MATERIA^ REMOVED I PRIVACY ACT MATERIAL REMOVED RADIOLOGICAL AND ENVl RONMENTAL RES: 4RCH DIVISION, ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY Cass Avenue, Argon:,€, Illinois 6043) Tele

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Dear Or. Jhoriias: the En vi roniiiental Health Section(previously Center for Human Radio biology),I refer you back to the fact sheet furnished Dr.Thiessen in 1984 (copy With respect to your telephone inquiry relating top luton iur ii studies in i n 1904 o f causes not reasonably rel a table to plutonium. Case HP-6 is living a j of several days ago. Both the interviewer who contacted the household,and a review of the case file,suggest that the fun c - tion ing of this subject is such that direct contact is contra indicated.I hope this is of some assistance to you. Best personal wishes. E p i deirii 01ogy Group Leader

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ARCONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY Mail stop E-201, Human Health 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) In response to Dr. C. W. Ed in gt on ' s memorandum of June 27, 1984, on the above subject, I have enclosed a fact sheet on "Plutonium Studies at the Center The fact sheet is in the format requested by Please let me know i f you need more information or documentation.

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Plutonium Studies at the Center for Date Terminated: Ongoing Objectives of Test : 1. To determine the excretion rate of plutonium 27 years after injection. 2. To determine the retention and body distribution of plutonium. Short Da script ion : I n 1945-1947, 18 hospital patients of limited life expectancy were injected with plutonium in order tp obtain information about the retention and organ distribution of plutonium. An important objective was t o 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 pluto niu n in excreta (?+?assay). 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 a t times ranging from 5 days to 456 days after injection, and the longest collection time for excreta was about5 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 CHX for possible further follow-up. The Center then undertook t o determine excretion rates i n 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. I n 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 for 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. ‘3-12) Copies of these reports are attached.

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Summary of CHR activities and last knownTable 1. Old Case CHR Case CHR Activities Status Plutonium injection cases: 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 permission to exhume and radioactivity measurement 1973: Next of kin refused 1973 and 1977: Next of k i n refused permission to exhume Lost to study,

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excretion of plutonium administered to man. Los Alamos Scientific 2. 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 ProC. Seminar, Vienna, 8-1 2 December 1975, IAEA, Vienna, pp. 15-22 ( 1 976) I n Diagnosis and Treatment of Incorporated Radionuclides, 4. R.E. Rowland and P.W. Durbin. Survival,causes of death, and estimated tissue doses ina group of human beings injected with plutonium. Health E f f e c t s of Plutonium and Radium, Proc. Symp. Sun Valley, Idaho, 6-9 5. R.A. Schlenker, B.G. Oltrnan, and H.T. Cummins. Microscopic distribution of 239Pu deposited in bone from a human injection case. Effects of Plutonium and Radium, Proc. Symp. Sun Valley, Idaho, 6-9 6. 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 7. R.E. Rowland. The risk of bone sarcoma from plutonium-239. In Biological Implications of Radio nuclides Released from Nuclear Industries, Proc. Symp., Vienna, 26-30 March 1979, Vol. 11, IAEA, Vienna, pp. 211-224 8. R.P. Larsen, R.D. Oldham, and R.E. Toohey. Macro distribution of plutonium inthe human skeleton.In Actinides in Man and Animals, Proc. Snowbird Lake City, UT, pp. 191-197 (1981 1. 9. J. Rundo. The late excretion of plutonium following acquisition of known amounts. In Actinides in Man and Animals, Proc. Snowbird Actinide 10. 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. Oltman, 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.Health Phys. …