Basis for the ICRP's age-specific biokinetic model for uranium.
In an effort motivated largely by the Chernobyl nuclear accident, the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) is developing age-specific biokinetic models and dose coefficients for environmentally important radionuclides. This paper describes the ICRP's age-specific biokinetic model for uranium. The model is constructed within a physiologically based framework originally developed for application to the alkaline earth elements but sufficiently general to apply to the larger class of bone-volume-seeking elements. Transfer rates for a reference adult are based mainly on: 1. measurements of uranium in blood and excreta of several human subjects who were intravenously injected with uranium; 2. postmortem measurements of uranium in tissues of some of those subjects; 3. postmortem measurements of uranium in tissues of occupationally and non-occupationally exposed subjects; 4. data on baboons, dogs, and smaller laboratory animals exposed to uranium for experimental purposes; and 5. consideration of the physiological processes thought to control retention and translocation of uranium in the body. Transfer rates for the adult are extended to children by application of a set of generic assumptions applied by the ICRP to calcium-like elements. These assumptions were derived mainly from observations of the age-specific biokinetics of the alkaline earth elements and lead in humans and laboratory animals but are consistent with available age-specific biokinetic data on uranium.
Health Sciences Research Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee 37831.
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Leggett
D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D002648:Child; D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D008954:Models, Biological; D014018:Tissue Distribution; D014501:Uranium / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*
D014501:Uranium