Sunday, February 10, 2013

Deposition of Contaminated Aerosols on Human Skin




Deposition of contaminant aerosol on human skin. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity. By K.G. Andersson a,*, J. Roed a, M.A. Byrne b, H. Hession b. Available online 15 August 2005

Abstract

Over recent years, it has been established that deposition of various types of pollutant aerosols (e.g., radioactive) on human skin can have serious deleterious effects on health. 

However, only few investigations in the past have been devoted to measurement of deposition velocities on skin of particles of the potentially problematic sizes. 

An experimental programme has shown the deposition velocities on skin of particles in the ca. 0.5e5 mm AMAD range to be high and generally associated with great variations. A series of investigations have been made to identify some of the factors that lead to this variation. Part of the variation was found to be caused by differences between individuals, whereas another part was found to be related to environmental factors. 

The identification of major influences on skin contaminant deposition is important in estimating health effects as well as in identifying means for their reduction.

Excerpted from Article:

“Until the late 1990s, surprisingly little attention had been given to the implications of contaminant aerosol (either radioactive or non-radioactive) depositing on human skin. Consequently, published data were at that point far too sparse to allow reliable nuclear emergency consequence modelling. By 1998, the severity of this problem had been recognised by, for instance, the developers of the European standard model COSYMA (Jones et al., 1998), and an experimental project had been initiated to investigate the mechanisms governing both beta and gamma doses from deposition of contaminant aerosol on the human body (Fogh et al., 1999; Fogh and Andersson, 2000; Andersson et al., 2002).

For instance, the Chernobyl accident demonstrated that large reactor accidents can cause releases of a range of radioactive aerosols, which can deposit on human populations....

MAJIA HERE: And now again with Fukushima....

Evidence of transport of radioisotopes from Fukushima as aerosols:

C. Armstrong, M. Nyman, T. Shvareva,  G. Sigmon, P. Burns, and A. Navrotsky (2012) ‘Uranyl Peroxide Enhanced Nuclear Fuel Corrosion in Seawater’, PNAS, 109.6, 1874-1877.

 
 

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