Plutonium in Environmental and Biological Media

Abstract

Data are presented on the concentrations of plutonium in air, precipitation, total diet, milk and human tissue samples collected in the United States during the period 1964–1966. These data show that 239Pu in monthly composites of particulates collected from surface level air in Winchester, Massachusetts, ranged from 0.047 to 0.437 fCi/m3 from May 1965 to April 1966, and that the average 239Pu to 90Sr ratio was 0.019 and the average 238Pu to 239Pu ratio was 0.04. Monthly deposition of 239Pu from precipitation over the same period ranged from 0.86 to 8.8 pCi/m2. Children's diets collected from six widely spaced geographical areas showed average concentrations which ranged from 2.7 to 5.8 fCi/kg for monthly samples for the period July-December 1965. Milk samples collected in a similar manner over a similar period showed concentrations which were not significantly different from zero. Analyses of human tissue samples obtained at autopsy in the greater Boston area during the period August 1965 July 1966 showed concentrations of 239Pu in livers ranging from 0.21 to 2.52 pCi/kg and in lungs ranging from 0.14 to 1.13 pCi/kg. 239Pu was not detected in bone samples from individual autopsies but was detected in large composite bone samples in concentrations ranging from 0.04 to 0.12 pCi/kg.