Reevaluation of USTUR Plutonium Wound Case 0262 Using Bayesian Methodology and New Data

Abstract

Skin penetration by radionuclide contaminants serves as a route of entry into the body and may pose a serious health risk to humans depending on the magnitude of intake. The United States Transuranium and Uranium Registry whole body Case 0262 was involved in a wound intake of plutonium at the Hanford Site. The registrant died about 33 years later. Results were initially reported in 2007 regarding the deposition and retention of plutonium in various tissues, including the wound site. However in 2009, an additional (previously unrecorded) sample of the wound tissue was located in the National Human Radiobiological Tissue Repository. The new sample was analyzed using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and the results were used to calibrate the measurement of emitted Pu x-rays from the original wound tissue sample made in 2007. In the present study, the analysis of Pu absorption rates from the wound and axillary lymph node from the initial study is repeated using the additional wound activity data and ICP-MS calibration. This new analysis is carried out using the Weighted Likelihood Monte Carlo Sampling (WeLMoS) method and code, which applies Bayesian inference to calculate the posterior probability distribution of intake and wound absorption parameters directly from the observed data and the assumed biokinetic model structure. The resulting central estimates of empirical wound absorption parameters and their associated uncertainties are here compared with the empirical values recommended in NCRP Report No. 156 for plutonium and with the maximum likelihood point estimates derived in the initial study from the Case 0262 data available at the time.

Synergistic cytotoxicity and DNA strand breaks in cells and plasmid DNA exposed to uranyl acetate and ultraviolet radiation

“…Monitoring of Gulf War veterans with uranium‐containing shrapnel embedded in their skin has determined that the shrapnel dissolves and the uranium migrates to systemic organs and is excreted in urine (Leggett and Pellmar, ; McDiarmid et al ., ). Dermal exposure to uranium and other nuclides remains a major concern in the nuclear industry (Phan et al ., ; Spagnul et al ., ; Weber et al ., ).…”

Four-decade follow-up of a plutonium-contaminated puncture wound treated with Ca-DTPA

“…During the last two decades, the USTUR published reports on two whole-body tissue donor cases with wound intakes of 239 Pu (James et al 2007, Weber et al 2012, Avtandilashvili et al 2018. The individual described in James et al (2007) and Weber et al (2012), USTUR Case 0262, incurred a wound contaminated with insoluble plutonium oxide.…”

“…During the last two decades, the USTUR published reports on two whole-body tissue donor cases with wound intakes of 239 Pu (James et al 2007, Weber et al 2012, Avtandilashvili et al 2018. The individual described in James et al (2007) and Weber et al (2012), USTUR Case 0262, incurred a wound contaminated with insoluble plutonium oxide. Avtandilashvili et al (2018) published data concerning a USTUR tissue donor (Case 0212) with a single wound intake of mostly soluble plutonium material who underwent extensive Ca-DTPA treatment.…”

“…Avtandilashvili et al (2018) published data concerning a USTUR tissue donor (Case 0212) with a single wound intake of mostly soluble plutonium material who underwent extensive Ca-DTPA treatment. James et al (2007) used an ad hoc wound model to describe plutonium excretion and retention for Case 0262 while Weber et al (2012) and Avtandilashvili et al (2018) applied the NCRP wound model to evaluate bioassay data and tissue radiochemistry results available for cases 0262 and 0212, respectively. In addition, data from Case 0212 was used for the development of the plutonium decorporation model (Dumit et al 2019a).…”