THE RESPONSE OF MAMMALIAN SKIN TO IRRADIATION WITH PARTICLES OF REACTOR DEBRIS,
Abstract
A survey of the relevant information in the biological and medical literature has shown that serious radiation-induced acute lesions of the skin are caused primarily by the destruction of the germinal layer cells of the epithelium. For an acute lesion to develop, the viable germinal cells must be reduced to a survival level of less than 0.001 over an area large enough so that cell proliferation in the margin of the exposure field will not be able to replace the dead cells. The principal type of delayed or late radiation-induced lesion of the skin is cancer. In rats and mice the development of cancer of the skin is consistently associated with the presence of acute lesions of the skin in the period following radiation exposure. The provisional standard recommended on the basis of experiments with rats is that a dose to the skin of 1500 rads or more, over a circular field of 4 mm radius or more, constitutes a potentially hazardous exposure condition. The fallout from destruction of a nuclear reactor is expected to be in the form of fragments and particles of various sizes. For separate particles likely to adhere to skin, approximate dose calculations have shown that only the beta emitting isotopes of higher energy maxima (1.5 Mev or greater) will be able to produce a radiation field large enough to be considered hazardous. If the particles fall on the skin in clusters, or if they are crushed and spread over the skin as a film of powder, the potential hazard will be much increased and the contribution of lower beta energies to the hazard will be significantly increased. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 15, 1967
- Accession Number
- AD0661489
Entities
People
- J. S. Krebs
Organizations
- Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory