The assessment of doses and effects from intakes of radioactive particles

The behaviour of radionuclides after entry into the body and the radiation doses received by individual tissues depend on the chemical nature of the element, the physicochemical form of the intake, the radioactive half-life of the isotope and the type and energy of the emissions. Ingestion of radionuclides in insoluble particles will result in radiation doses being delivered to tissues of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract; other tissues will also be irradiated by nuclides with penetrating photons emissions (gamma) but doses may be largely confined to the GI tract for charged particle emissions (alpha, beta). Ingestion of more soluble forms will lead to greater absorption to blood and deposition in other tissues and therefore may result in greater doses to other tissues. Similar considerations apply to inhaled material and to the entry of radionuclides through cuts or wounds. For ingested materials, including particles, more information is needed on uptake and retention in intestinal tissues and consequent doses to sensitive cells, particularly for alpha emitters. There has been concern that the pattern of distribution of activity throughout irradiated tissues may influence the extent of damage, particularly for alpha emitters because of the localised deposition of energy and their greater relative biological effectiveness compared with beta/gamma emitters. Aggregation of activity has the potential to result in greater acute tissue damage and has been shown, for example, to result in focalised pneumonitis and fibrosis in the lung and ulceration of the skin. The main long-term effect of irradiation of tissues is the induction of malignant change, although hereditary disease may also be of concern following irradiation of the gonads. There are only limited data available to compare the effect on cancer induction of heterogeneous and homogeneous irradiation of tissues. However, the available information, for irradiation of the lung, skin or liver, indicates that in general nonuniform alpha irradiation from radioactive particles is no more hazardous, and may be less hazardous, than if the same activity is uniformly distributed.