Abstract
Nasal swabs and facial swipes have been used to screen potential internal radioactive contamination for decades. However, the ratio between the lung intake and the activity on a swab or a swipe varies according to the nature of the contaminant involved and the exposure conditions such as particle sizes of the contaminant and the humidity in the air. This paper reports the experimental results using stable La2O3 as an analog for actinide oxides, focusing on the most important parameters such as humidity, plume velocity, and facial condition at a fixed room temperature of 23 ± 2 °C. The results showed that the effects of humidity, plume velocity, and facial condition vary more on orofacial swipe/lung deposition ratios compared to nasal swab/lung deposition ratios. The amounts on nasal swabs tended to show smaller change with respect to parameters such as plume velocity, humidity, and skin moisture. The amounts on orofacial swipes varied by a factor of 10–15 among the samples collected across all parameters. Such variability would be expected to be even greater in a real-world scenario with a larger range of physiological and environmental conditions.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (2008) Management of persons contaminated with radionuclides. NCRP report 161, I and II, Bethesda
Dai X, Liblong A, Kramer-Tremblay S, Priest N, Li C (2008) Optimisation of nasal swab analysis by liquid scintillation counting. J Radiol Prot 32:155–166
Kurihara O, Takada C, Takasaki K, Ito K, Momose T, Miyabe K (2007) Practical action levels for chelation therapy in plutonium inhalation using nose swab. Radiat Prot Dosim 127(1–4):411–414
Smith JRH, Etherington G, Youngman MJ (2012) An investigation of monitoring by nose blow sampling—the potential for developing nose blow sampling into a robust screening method for exposure to radionuclides. HPA-CRCE-030
Waller EJ (2010) Combined hardware–software considerations for triage of internally contaminated personnel. Radiat Prot Dosim 142(1):24–28
Cheng YS, Yeh HC, Guilmette RA (1996) Nasal deposition of ultrafine particles in human volunteers and its relationship to airway geometry. Aerosol Sci Technol 25:274–291
International Commission on Radiation Protection (1994) Human respiratory tract model for radiological protection. ICRP publication 66. Ann. ICRP 24:1–3
National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (2011) Population monitoring and radionuclide decorporation following a radiological or nuclear incident. NCRP report 166, Bethesda
Sugarman SL, Toohey R, Goans R, Christensen D, Wiley A (2010) Rapid internal dose magnitude estimation in emergency situations using annual limits on intake (ALI) comparisons. Health Phys 98(6):815–818
Guilmette RA, Bertelli L, Miller G, Little TT (2007) Technical basis for using nose swab bioassay data for early internal dose assessment. Radiat Prot Dosim 127(1–4):356–360
Andersson KG, Roed J, Byrne MA, Hession H (2006) Deposition of contaminant aerosol on human skin. J Environ Radioact 85:182–195
Fogh CL, Byrne MA, Andersson KG, Bell KF, Roed J, Goddard AJH, Vollmair DV, Hotchkiss SAM (1999) Quantitative measurement of aerosol deposition on skin, hair, and clothing for dosimetric assessment—final report. Riso-r-1075(en)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ko, R., Shew, C., Perera, S. et al. Investigation of internal radionuclide contamination from the analysis of nasal swabs and facial swipes. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 301, 147–152 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-014-3118-x
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-014-3118-x