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Uranium and thorium in urine of United States residents: reference range concentrations
B G Ting1, D C Paschal, J M Jarrett
1Division of Environmental Health Laboratory Sciences, National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway, Atlanta, Georgia 30341, USA.
Abstract:
We measured uranium and thorium in urine of 500 U. S. residents to establish reference range concentrations using a magnetic-sector inductively coupled argon plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). We found uranium at detectable concentrations in 96.6% of the urine specimens and thorium in 39.6% of the specimens. The 95th percentile concenetration for uranium was 34.5 ng/L (parts per trillion); concentrations ranged up to 4080 ng/L. Thorium had a 95th percentile concentration of 3.09 ng/L; concentrations ranged up to 7.7 ng/L.