[en] Studies were conducted in beagle dogs to determine the efficiency of treatment by lung lavage and injections of chelating agents in removing inhaled plutonium of varied chemical forms and particle sizes. Polydisperse aerosols of ²³⁹Pu were produced at different temperatures from 325⁰C to 1150⁰C to evaluate the effect of the chemical form of the particles. Aerosols of ²³⁸Pu were produced at 1150⁰C only but were of different particle size or size distributions. Three dogs that inhaled each different plutonium aerosol were treated by lung lavages starting two days after the exposure. Subsequent lavages were performed on days 7, 10, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, and 49 after exposure. Intravenous injections of 100 mg of diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) as the calcium salt were given on days 1, 2, 3 and 4 after exposure and twice weekly thereafter to the time of sacrifice, 56 days after exposure. The 10 lung lavages removed from 18 to 49% of the initial lung burden of plutonium. The recovery of plutonium by lavage was similar irrespective of the temperature at which the aerosol was produced, however, lavage recovery decreased somewhat with increasing particle size. The efficacy of DTPA treatment increased with decreasing production temperature of the ²³⁹Pu. Treatment with DTPA was not affected by particle size of the 0.8- and 1.9-μm monodisperse ²³⁹Pu aerosol. The effectiveness of lung lavage decreased as the solubility of the aerosol particles increased whereas the effectiveness of the DTPA treatment increased as the solubility of the inhaled aerosol increased as shown by the lowest temperature aerosol and the aerosol-containing soluble fraction. These findings correlated qualitatively with a 2-hour in-vitro solubility test on the exposure aerosols. (author)