Relation between soil contamination and lung burden, and implications to resuspension experimental design

A method is proposed for predicting exposure and lung burden of radioactivity from contaminated soil without direct measurement of airborne radioactivity. The method is applied in calculating the lung burden from 239Pu and 240Pu particles. It is proposed that airborne radioactivity from resuspension can be calculated using concentrations of radioactivity in resuspendable soil and using data on resuspension of similar soil under similar land use. The calculations of airborne soil are made for each particle size, and hence may then be used as input to predictions of amount of contamination in the lung. The paper includes the formulation used to predict lung contamination, a suggestion on appropriate soil sampling depth, an equation for extrapolating soil concentration to obtain concentration right at the surface, and a suggestion that large particles be discarded in the sampling. The elementary formula relating airborne soil measured on towers to the upward flux of soil through a horizontal plane is presented, and inferences drawn for design of an experimental program