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  • Title: Retention of tritium in reference persons: a metabolic model. Derivation of parameters and application of the model to the general public and to workers.
    Author: Galeriu D, Melintescu A.
    Journal: J Radiol Prot; 2010 Sep; 30(3):445-68. PubMed ID: 20798471.
    Abstract:
    Tritium ((3)H) is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is ubiquitous in environmental and biological systems. Following debate on the human health risk from exposure to tritium, there have been claims that the current biokinetic model recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) may underestimate tritium doses. A new generic model for tritium in mammals, based on energy metabolism and body composition, together with all its input data, has been described in a recent paper and successfully tested for farm and laboratory mammals. That model considers only dietary intake of tritium and was extended to humans. This paper presents the latest development of the human model with explicit consideration of brain energy metabolism. Model testing with human experimental data on organically bound tritium (OBT) in urine after tritiated water (HTO) or OBT intakes is presented. Predicted absorbed doses show a moderate increase for OBT intakes compared with doses recommended by the ICRP. Infants have higher tritium retention-a factor of 2 longer than the ICRP estimate. The highest tritium concentration is in adipose tissue, which has a very low radiobiological sensitivity. The ranges of uncertainty in retention and doses are investigated. The advantage of the new model is its ability to be applied to the interpretation of bioassay data.
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