Bioassay of ²¹⁰Po in human urine and internal contamination of man

Abstract

The deliberate poisoning of A. Litvinenko in London in late 2006 with ²¹⁰Po, attracted attention to the difficulties in identifying internal contamination with alpha emitting radionuclides and to the limited knowledge available on the cycling of many naturally occurring radioisotopes in the body and their baseline concentration values in humans. To cope with the emergency caused by the spread of high ²¹⁰Po activity, which contaminated several people and places in London, we were called upon to analyze urine samples in potentially contaminated people. A reference group of adult humans was also selected for determination of baseline ²¹⁰Po values to be used for comparative purposes. Concentrations of ²¹⁰Po in urine samples from three Portuguese citizens that have been at contaminated places, in London, ranged from 2.3 to 4.1 mBq·L⁻¹ while in the reference group ²¹⁰Po concentrations ranged from 0.5 to 4.8 mBq·L⁻¹. Analytical quality of results was ensured through participation in an international inter laboratory comparison exercise on ²¹⁰Po determination in aqueous samples. Results indicated that people potentially exposed to ²¹⁰Po in London were not internally contaminated with the radionuclide used as a poisoning agent, and the levels of this radionuclide measured in the urine were similar to the naturally occurring levels in the reference group. Polonium levels in urine and in man are discussed in the light of ²¹⁰Po levels in the human diet.