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FACT SHEET ON MANHATTAN ENGINEER DISTRICT ZMED) PLUTONIUM EXCRETION STUDIES Purpose o f 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 f o r setting safety criteria. flicting data which could not be extrapolated to man. Protocol: Selected hospitalized patients injected with various amounts o f soluble plutonium. collected, measured and recorded for plutonium discharge for several weeks after injection. Strong Memorial Hospital o f the University o f Rochester, Rochester, New York. (11) Billings Hospital o f the University of Chicago, University Hospital o f the University o f California, The three university hospitals were associated with MED contractor laboratories and some staff members held joint appointments at the hospital and the blED One patient injected after that, Where : MED Hospiltal in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. (1)
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By combination of 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 these criteria occurred.In one case, the diagnosis later proved t o be Survival Time after Injections : Cause of Death: Amounts o f PU Injected : All deaths in first three years related to diagnosed existing illness.Later 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 (permissible amount of plutonium in Range from 2to145 (1 case) Passing references to this study have been made in the scientific. literature from time to time. written between 1946 and 1950 by people associated with the study. These reports were classified however until about 1969- , Three reports on the study were
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The reports are : "The Distribution and Excretion of Plutonium i n Two Human "A Comparison of Metabolism o f Plutonium (PU-238) i n Man and " Distribution and Excretion of Plutonium Administered The definitive discussion of the study was in a chapter by + atthe Old Data," which was included in the book Radio bio lo University of Utah. Recent Studies of Sur vi vine Patients : I n 1972 Dr.Patricia - Durbin, who had accumulated data on study fcr book chapter,explored possibility of following up living I n 1973 Dr. Durbin transferred information and records to Dr. Rowland and the Center for Human Radiobiology (CHR) a t Argonne National Laboratory. CHR arranged for follow up study of three of the four living patients and for exhumation ofthe body o f two deceased patients. In1974two papers on follow up were prepared for International Congress of Radiation Research meeting in Seattle.