Manhattan Project Plutonium Workers - 27 Year Follow-Up Study Of Selected Cases

Twenty-five male subjects who worked with plutonium during World War II under extraordinarily crude working conditions have been followed medically for a period of 27 yr. Within the past year, 21 of these men have been examined at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, and three more will be studied in 1973. In addition to physical examinations and laboratory studies (complete blood count, blood chemistry profile and urinalysis), roentgenograms were taken of the chest, pelvis, knee and teeth. The chromosomes of lymphocytes cultured from the peripheral blood and cells exfoliated from the pulmonary tract were also studied. Urine specimens assayed for plutonium gave a calculated current body burden (excluding the lungs) ranging from 0.005 to 0.42 μCi, and low-energy radiation emitted by internally deposited transuranic elements in the chest disclosed lung burdens probably of less than approximately 0.01 μCi. To date, none of the medical findings in the group can be attributed definitely to internally deposited plutonium. The bronchial cells of several of the subjects showed moderate to marked metaplastic change, but the significance of these changes is not clear. Diseases and physical changes characteristic of a male population entering its sixth decade were observed. Because of the small body burdens on the order of the maximum permissible level in these men so heavily exposed to plutonium compounds, we conclude that the body has protective mechanisms which are effective in discriminating against these materials following some types of occupational exposures. This is presumably explained by the insolubility of many of its compounds. Plutonium is more toxic than radium if deposited in certain body tissues, especially bone; however, from the practical point of view, plutonium seems to be less hazardous to handle.