Results are presented of postmortem human tissue sampling and analysis for plutonium of Hanford Site workers, residents of the nearby Tri-Cities, and individuals residing farther away from the Hanford Site for the period 1970-1975. The majority of Hanford Site workers and nearby residents coming to autopsy had tissue concentrations of plutonium no larger than those who lived farther away from Hanford and whose likely source of plutonium was limited to nuclear weapons testing fallout. Thus, Hanford operations up to that time apparently had made no significant addition to plutonium in those individuals sampled postmortem.

Urine samples from a person treated intravenously with diethyl-enetriaminepentaacetate (DTPA) salts for 3 yr to promote the excretion of 241Am were assayed for 24 elements including almost all of the trace metals currently recognized as essential for good health. Zinc was found to be the only metal excreted more rapidly than normal. An 18-mg urinary loss of body zinc was found to be associated with each 1-g injection of Na3CaDTPA. Use of either Na3ZnDTPA or Na3CaDTPA combined with oral dosages of ZnSO4 appeared to completely compensate for this loss, and it is unlikely that the patient experienced any zinc deficiency due to the DTPA treatment.