title: Long-term follow-up of the 137Cs body burden of individuals after the Chernobyl accident--a means for the determination of biological half-lives.
abstract: Since 1986, the year of the Chernobyl accident, 137Cs body burdens of members of a Bavarian reference group have been measured monthly. These time series were individually analyzed with respect to the long-term component T1 of the biological half-life of 137Cs, assuming a continuous 137Cs intake, which is based on reference data for the food consumption in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 13 individual cases, T1 was additionally deduced after single ingestion of 137Cs. The resulting T1 deduced from continuous and from single intake agreed within about 20%. Using the results of 64 cases, it is shown that there is a dependency of T1 with sex for adults. T1 for children and adults are also significantly different. When combining all data for children, adult females and adult males, significant correlations of T1 with age, 40K and body mass can be found. Since body mass, for example, is a parameter very simple to measure, the given correlations are useful for practical purposes.
authors.affiliation: Federal Office for Radiation Protection, Institute for Radiation Hygiene, Oberschleissheim, Germany. w.ruehm@Lrz.uni-muenchen.de
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Rühm
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: König
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bayer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001822:Body Burden; D002588:Cesium Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005858:Germany; D006207:Half-Life; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008954:Models, Biological; D011197:Potassium Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis; D011847:Radioactive Fallout; D018788:Radioactive Hazard Release; D012016:Reference Values; D013997:Time Factors; D014455:Ukraine
chemical_list: D002588:Cesium Radioisotopes; D011197:Potassium Radioisotopes; D011847:Radioactive Fallout