Distribution and excretion of uranium in man

The critical organ for radiation insult from storage of enriched uranium is the kidney when exposure is to a soluble substance. The disappearance of uranium from the body shows a slight dependence upon the amount injected into the bloodstream. The urinary excretion data can be described using the power function law. Integration of this function yields the retention as a function of time. The calculated retention agrees more closely with the retention in the critical organ than with retention in the body. A tentative MPC for exposure to soluble compounds is calculated to be 4 x 10/sup -11/ mu c/cc on the basis of the power function equation. A tentative MPC for urine is calculated using the power function law. The calculated value is 355 d/m/day, a factor of 5 greater than the present value employed, thereby indicating a margin of safety for exposure to soluble compounds. (auth)