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From: KEN@NJITCCCC.BITNET (Kenneth Ng)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: plutonium toxicity
Message-ID: <8603010459.AA01073@s1-b.arpa>
Date: Fri, 28-Feb-86 23:32:00 EST
Article-I.D.: s1-b.8603010459.AA01073
Posted: Fri Feb 28 23:32:00 1986
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The following is taken from "Hazards from Plutonium Toxicity", by
Bernard L. Cohen, published in Health Physics, May 1977, page
365.

     For insoluble reactor-Pu, the most important exposure is to the
     GI tract, so the cancer causing dose is 2.8 g of reactor-Pu,
     and the LD50 is 2.0 gram.  The LD50 in gram for other substances
     taken orally are selenium oxide: 0.3; potassium cynaide: 0.7;
     mercury dichloride: 0.8; and caffeine: 14.  All of these cause
     death within a short time.  There seems to be no data on the
     amount of carcinogens that must be taken orally in order to
     induce cancer, and there is no known mechanism for Pu taken
     orally to cause early death other than with truly massive does.

That is the toxicity of plutonium directly. Of course that assumes one
can get a population to consume the metal directly.  On a more realistic
note, let's say that the space shuttle with the plutonium exploded directly
over New York City at a low altitude.  According to page 375 of the same
report, one death per 18 grams released will occur over a long time,
the breakdown is as follows:

     Source:                           grams released to kill one person
     Inhalation from initial cloud     24
     Resuspension in 1st year          70
     Resuspension after 1st year       5000
     Very long term                    2500
     Plant uptake into food            > 500

As a final note, atmospheric atomic testing as blown about 3 TONS of
plutonium into the atmosphere, taken from "The Health Hazards of NOT
Going Nuclear", by Petr Beckmann, page 139.