Evaluating the risk from depleted uranium after the Boeing 747-258F crash in Amsterdam, 1992

Haag, P.A.M. Uijt de; Smetsers, R.C.G.M.; Witlox, H.W.M.; Krüs, H.W.; Eisenga, A.H.M.

doi:10.1016/s0304-3894(00)00183-7

Cited by 50 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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Section: Typementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Actual concentrations were never reported, but no excess of threshold values were measured (Uijt de Haag et al, 2000). The contaminated soil was removed and only increased concentrations of hydrocarbons, such as kerosene, were measured in the soil and ground water (Uijt de Haag et al, 2000). The aftercare focused on minimizing psychological problems caused by traumatic experiences and material loss (Boin et al, 2001), but possible health effects due to released substances were disregarded.…”

Section: Typementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The models made use of meteorological data from Schiphol Airport, located 12 km from the incident site, but there were no measurements of uranium oxide available to validate the models. No long-term health effects caused by exposure to uranium oxide were expected based on the worst case scenario estimations (Uijt de Haag et al, 2000). Occupationally exposed relief workers and hangar workers handling the wreck of the plane reported more autoimmune symptoms, but no difference in the incidence of autoantibodies was found between the exposed and their unexposed colleagues (Slottje et al, 2005a, b).…”

Section: Typementioning

confidence: 99%

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Challenges of exposure assessment for health studies in the aftermath of chemical incidents and disasters

Bongers

Janssen

Reiss

et al. 2008

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol

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Exposure assessment during and after acute chemical incidents and disasters is essential for health studies that may follow. During chemical incidents, the focus usually lies on risk assessment and afterward attention shifts toward possible (long-term) health effects. This may lead to insufficient available data on exposure to study the association between exposure and health outcome, and collection of additional exposure data is often required. Literature on health studies conducted after several chemical incidents was reviewed to obtain better insight on the needs of health studies. Four different types of scenarios were distinguished based on when exposure data were collected and the exposure data used for health studies. These four scenarios gave insight on exposure data needed for conclusive health studies and when different methods of exposure data collection should be used. Literature indicated that adequate and rapid exposure assessment during chemical incidents is vital for health studies, because data that are not collected during or directly after an incident may be irretrievably lost. Poor exposure assessment is not always the only problem in health studies. Problems in health studies including poor exposure assessment may be prevented when the general design and needs of health studies are taken into account when designing contingency plans. Together with measures that will help facilitate funding, design, and coordination of health studies, disaster management programs should, among others, prepare for methods that lead to a swift identification of released substances, determination of concentrations and dispersion of released substances, designing basic questionnaire outlines, and rapid evaluation of the usefulness and necessity of employing biological sampling.

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Section: Typementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Typementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Typementioning

confidence: 99%

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Challenges of exposure assessment for health studies in the aftermath of chemical incidents and disasters

Bongers

Janssen

Reiss

et al. 2008

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol

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“…The long half-life of the isotope 238 U ( ⁄ ) makes its specific activity relatively low, and it is easy to show that the dose absorbed by the people exposed to DU aerosols is a small fraction of the background radiation. However, it is difficult to reconcile the low estimate of the radiation dose delivered to the whole body by the intake of depleted uranium (6,7,8,9) and the reports of the complex array of symptoms affecting war veterans and civilian populations, however anecdotal. As a contribution to this issue, this work points out the small portion of an idealized body affected by the radiation delivered by a mass of U 3 O 8 (molecular mass , density ) in the form of particles of initial radius , containing exclusively the isotope 238 U.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A model study on the absorbed dose of radiation following respiratory intake of 238U3O8 aerosols

Canepa

2014

Radiation Protection Dosimetry

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Aerosols of depleted uranium oxides, formed upon high-energy impact of shells on hard targets during military operations, are able to disperse, reach the alveolar region of the lungs and be absorbed and distributed throughout various parts of the body. The absorbed particles are subjected to clearance in the upper respiratory tract, distribution to other body districts, dissolution, and excretion. While the soluble forms of uranium are known to deliver a small dose of radiation to the body due to their homogeneous distribution and the low specific activity of 238 U, ceramic particles exhibit a low dissolution rate and irradiate a limited volume of tissue for a long time with particles with energy 4.267 MeV. The extent of the irradiated tissues depends on the radius of the particles and the total intake of uranium oxides. For the measured intake of U 3 O 8 of a war veteran ( ) the number of particles ranges from to for sizes of . Modeling the distribution of the particles between two compartments of the body, the averaged dose absorbed in 20 years by tissues surrounding the particles and within the range of the particles varies from to for lungs and to for the lymph nodes, respectively. Correspondingly, due to the clearance and redistribution, the mass irradiated by particles falls in 20 years from to 0.94 g in the lungs and grows from zero to 1.0 mg in the lymph nodes. The estimated rate of formation of hydroxyl radicals upon radiolysis of water in the lungs and lymph nodes is per cell after one year.

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“…Examples include the 1979 threat of nuclear accident at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (26), industrial waste exposures at Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York, in the 1970s (27), exposures to implanted silicone medical devices (28), and possible toxic exposures from a jetliner crash in a populated area of Amsterdam (29). After the 11 September 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, concerns of a "WTC syndrome" consisting of cough, indigestion, eye irritation, and other symptoms emerged (30).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Caring for medically unexplained physical symptoms after toxic environmental exposures: effects of contested causation.

Engel¹,

Adkins²,

Cowan³

2002

Environ Health Perspect

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Medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) are persistent idiopathic symptoms that drive patients to seek medical care. MUPS syndromes include chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia syndrome, and multiple chemical sensitivities. When MUPS occur after an environmental exposure or injury, an adversarial social context that we call "contested causation" may ensue. Contested causation may occur publicly and involve media controversy, scientific disagreement, political debate, and legal struggles. This adversarial social context may diminish the effectiveness of the provider-patient relationship. Contested causation also may occur privately, when disagreement over the causes of MUPS takes place in the patient-provider context. These patient-provider disagreements over causation often occur because of the enigmatic nature of MUPS. We suggest that a context of contested causation may have serious negative effects on healthcare for individuals with MUPS. Context plays a larger role in MUPS care than it does for most medical care because of the uncertain nature of MUPS, the reliance of standard MUPS therapies on a potentially tenuous patient-provider partnership, and the clinical need to rely routinely on subjective MUPS assessments that often yield discordant patient and provider conclusions. Contested causation may erode patient-provider trust, test the provider's self-assurance and capacity to share power with the patient, and raise problematic issues of compensation, reparation, and blame. These issues may distract patients and providers from therapeutic goals. In occupational and military settings, the adverse impact of contested causation on the patient-provider partnership may diminish therapeutic effectiveness to a greater degree than it does in other medical settings. Contested causation therefore raises questions regarding generalizability of standard therapies for MUPS and related syndromes to these settings. Future research is needed to learn whether intuitively sensible and evidence-based MUPS therapies benefit occupational and military medical patients who are afforded care in the context of contested causation.

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Evaluating the risk from depleted uranium after the Boeing 747-258F crash in Amsterdam, 1992

Cited by 50 publications

References 3 publications

Challenges of exposure assessment for health studies in the aftermath of chemical incidents and disasters

Challenges of exposure assessment for health studies in the aftermath of chemical incidents and disasters

A model study on the absorbed dose of radiation following respiratory intake of 238U3O8 aerosols

Caring for medically unexplained physical symptoms after toxic environmental exposures: effects of contested causation.

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