The potential laboratory health hazard of 210Pb and a simple procedure for separation of 210Pb from the daughters 210Bi and 210Po.
Lead 210 (Radium D) is a naturally occurring radionuclide which is frequently used in toxicological studies due to its long half-life. The use of 210Pb in tracer studies poses two problems. First, 210Pb, along with its daughters 210Bi and 210Po, presents a significant health hazard to laboratory personnel. Second, the presence of the daughter products may interfere with the detection of 210Pb, particularly by techniques which discriminate poorly between different radioactive emissions, e.g., autoradiography. The potential laboratory health hazards of 210Pb and its daughters are briefly reviewed and a simple dithiozone extraction procedure which allows quantitative separation of 210Pb frm the daughters 210Po and 210Bi is described. The purified 210Pb may then be utilized to reduce the health hazard from the daughter products and to construct calibration curves for the quantitation of 210Pb in the presence of 210Bi and 210Po by liquid scintillation counting.
D001729:Bismuth / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004230:Dithizone; D006801:Humans; D007753:Laboratories; D007854:Lead / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D011059:Polonium / Q000302:isolation & purification; D011868:Radioisotopes / Q000009:adverse effects*; D012449:Safety; D012588:Scintillation Counting
D011868:Radioisotopes; D007854:Lead; D004230:Dithizone; D011059:Polonium; D001729:Bismuth