Plutonium in Finnish Lapps--an estimate of the gastrointestinal absorption of plutonium by man based on a comparison of the plutonium content of Lapps and southern Finns.

The plutonium body burden of five male Lapps was determined through radiochemical analysis of bone, liver and lung samples, and compared with the body burden of male southern Finns. Tissue burdens of plutonium were found equal in the Lapps and southern Finns. The mean content of 239,240Pu in bone (ribs), liver and lung of the Lapps was 0.045, 0.42 and 0.033 pCi/kg wet wt (1.7, 15.5, 1.2 mBq/kg), respectively. The average body burden of plutonium in the Lapps was 1.1 pCi (41 mBq). The 137Cs, 90Sr, 210Po and 210Pb contents of tissue samples were analyzed to estimate the amount of reindeer tissue consumed by the Lapps studied. The 137Cs content in liver and lung of the Lapps was, on the average, 2160 and 1180 pCi/kg wet wt (79.9 and 43.7 Bq/kg), respectively. In southern Finns both liver and lung content of 137Cs was less than 50 pCi wet wt (less than 1.9 Bq/kg). For 210Po, the liver and lung values were 86.2 and 8.2 pCi/kg wet wt (3.2 and 0.3 Bq/kg) in the Lapps and 15.4 and 3.9 pCi/kg wet wt (0.6 and 0.1 Bq/kg) in southern Finns, respectively. The inhalation intake of 239,240Pu of male Lapps during the period 1954-1978 was about 13 pCi (0.48 Bq) and that of southern Finns about 18 pCi (0.67 Bq). The estimated values for dietary intake were 535 pCi (19.7 Bq) and 36 pCi (1.3 Bq), respectively. The fractional absorption factor of 239,240Pu from the GI tract of man was estimated to be (8-9) X 10(-4), which is somewhat higher than that presently suggested by the ICRP for soluble plutonium compounds (1 X 10(-4)).

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