Human health studies

This project is concerned with the development and application of methods for evaluating the radiological impact of the nuclear industry on its workers and on residents in the environs. During the past year, the project included postmortem studies in which the quantities of radionuclides, particularly plutonium, were measured in samples of tissues obtained at autopsy from former workers and residents in the local environs of the Hanford Reservation and from individuals at more distant locations. In addition, this project supported the work of the U.S. Transuranium Registry (USTR) by performing radiochemical analyses of samples obtained by the Registry (USTR) by performing radiochemical analyses of samples obtained by the Registry from exposed workers and unexposed controls throughout the country. Epidemiological and statistical methods for assessing health effects of chronic low-level exposure to ionizing radiation and other environmental agents were investigated