The use of hair as an indicator of occupational 14C contamination.
This paper presents a study in which the specific activity of (14)C in hair has been investigated as an easily determined bio-indicator of the integrated (14)C exposure (over several months). The study includes 28 Swedish workers handling (14)C-labelled compounds, or working in a (14)C-enriched environment. Hair samples from personnel at a Swedish nuclear power plant showed very low levels of (14)C contamination, if any. In contrast, personnel at the investigated research departments showed (14)C levels in hair of up to 60% above the natural specific activity of (14)C. Much higher levels, up to 80 times the natural specific activity of (14)C, were found in hair from individuals working at a pharmaceutical research laboratory. This contamination was, however, not solely an internal contamination. There were indications that most of the (14)C in the hair originated from airborne (14)C-compounds, which were adsorbed onto the hair. The difficulties in removing this external (14)C contamination prior to analysis are discussed, as are the possibilities of using accelerator mass spectrometry to analyse various types of samples for retrospective dose assessment.
Division of Nuclear Physics, Department of Physics, Lund University, P.O. Box 118, 221 00, Lund, Sweden. kristina.stenstrom@nuclear.lu.se
Kristina
K
Stenström
Ingmar
I
Unkel
Carl Magnus
CM
Nilsson
Christopher
C
Rääf
Sören
S
Mattsson
D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis / Q000652:urine; D004345:Drug Industry; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006197:Hair / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D009262:Nails; D055848:Nuclear Power Plants; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D011851:Radioactivity; D012016:Reference Values; D013997:Time Factors; D014495:Universities
D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes