Estimating the Lung Burden from Exposure to Aerosols of Depleted Uranium.
Valdes, Marcel (2009) Radiation Protection Dosimetry. 134: 1, 23-29
Following exposure to aerosols of depleted uranium (DU), biological samples show the presence of a synthetic mixture of natural uranium and DU. By partitioning the uranium in the 24-h urine sample along the isotopic fractions of natural uranium and DU, one can study the kinetics of these subpopulations independently. A linear model is developed to estimate the lung burden of DU from measurements of DU in 24-h urine samples, years after inhalational exposure to aerosols of DU. This model takes into account the intracellular dissolution of the retained particles and the precipitation of a significant fraction of the dissolved DU as insoluble uranyl phosphates.