In vivo measurements of lead-210 for assessing cumulative radon exposure in uranium miners

It has long been recognized that a major contributor to the uncertainty in risk analysis of lung cancer in uranium and other hard rock miners is the estimation of total radon progeny exposure of individual miners under study. These uncertainties arise from the fact that only a limited number of measurements of airborne {sup 222}Rn progeny concentrations were made in the mines during the times that the miners were being exposed, and that dosimeters capable of integrating the Rn progeny exposures of the miners did not exist. Historically, the cumulative exposures for individual uranium and other hard rock miners have been calculated by combining the employee`s work history, which may or may not have included time spent at different jobs within the mines and at different locations within the mines, with whatever periodic measurements of Rn and Rn progeny were available. The amount and quality of the measurement data varied enormously from mine to mine and from population to population. Because the quality of the exposure data collected during the period of active mining in the United STates cannot now be altered substantially, significant improvement in individual miner exposure estimates is only likely to be achieved if a new cumulativemore » exposure metric is developed and implemented. The decay chain of Rn includes the production of {sup 210}Pb, which can accumulate in the skeleton in amounts proportional to the intake of Rn progeny. We hypothesize that the in vivo measurement of {sup 210}Pb in the skulls of miners will provide such a metric. In summary, the primary purpose of this pilot study to demonstrate the feasibility of measuring {sup 210}Pb in the heads of former uranium miners has been accomplished.« less