Pacific Northwest Laboratory annual report for 1983 to the DOE Office of Energy Research. Part 1. Biomedical sciences

This report summarizes progress on Office of Health and Environmental Research (OHER) biomedical and health effects research conducted at PNL in FY 1983 to develop the information required for a comprehensive understanding of the interaction of energy-related pollutants with living organisms. The first section is devoted to an evaluation of possible health effects among nuclear workers. The next three sections, which contain reports of health effects research in biological systems, are grouped according to the major endpoint being studied: carcinogenesis, mutagenesis, and systems damage. Since some projects have multiple objectives, a section may contain data concerning other endpoints as well. The section on carcinogenesis presents results from laboratory animal dose-effect relationship studies from both nuclear and synfuels materials. These data, along with metabolism and modeling studies, provide a basis for predicting human risks in the absence of relevant human exposure. This year we include a report on our 22nd Hanford Life Sciences Symposium, which dealt with this problem of extrapolating the results of animal studies to man. Of particular importance in carcinogenesis has been the demonstration that the carcinogenic potencies of complex organic synfuel mixtures may be much lower (or, occasionally, higher) than the sum of the potencies of the individual components. The mutagenesis section is primarily concerned with the results of microbial mutagenesis studies with synfuel materials. These studies provide valuable information on the carcinogenic potential of these complex organic mixtures. With results from studies reported in the carcinogenesis section, they are also being used to establish an adequate data base for determining the correlation between mutagenic and carcinogenic processes. Separate abstracts have been prepared for each program for inclusion in the Energy Data Base