Distribution of 226Ra body burden of workers in an underground uranium mine in India.

Uranium mine workers are exposed to ore dust containing uranium and its daughter products during different mining operations. These radionuclides may pose inhalation hazards to workers during the course of their occupation. The most significant among these radionuclides is (226)Ra. The measurement of radium body burden of uranium mine workers is important to assess their internal exposure. For this purpose, the radon-in-breath measurement technique has been used in the present paper. Workers at the Jaduguda mine, India, associated with different categories of mining operations were monitored between 2001 and 2007. The measurement results indicate that workers--depending on mining operation category--show (226)Ra body burdens ranging from 0.15 to 2.85 kBq. The maximum body burden was found for workers associated with timbering operations, with an average (226)Ra body burden of 0.85 ± 0.54 kBq. Overall, the average value observed for 800 workers was 0.76 ± 0.51 kBq, which gives rise to an average effective dose of 1.67 mSv per year for inhalation and 0.21 mSv per year for ingestion.

Transport and retention of K+ and other metabolites in a marine pseudomonad and their relation to the mechanism of optical effects.

Suspensions of cells of a marine pseudomonad washed with 0.05 m MgSO(4) showed an immediate increase in optical density (first-phase optical change) when the salt concentration of the suspending medium was increased; a subsequent slow decrease in optical density (second-phase optical change) occurred if K(+) was present. The rate of the second-phase change was similar to the rate of uptake of (42)K(+) by the cells. Glutamate increased the rate and extent of the second-phase change and produced a parallel increase in the rate and extent of uptake of (42)K(+). Citrate increased the extent of the second-phase change in cells adapted to oxidize citrate but not in unadapted cells. Adapted, but not unadapted, cells accumulated (14)C-citrate. The nonmetabolizable alpha-aminoisobutyric acid (AIB) also increased the extent of the second-phase change under conditions leading to the uptake of (14)C-AIB by the cells. Cells maintained in a salt solution optimal for the retention of intracellular solutes were found to contain 0.184 m K(+). In the same salt solution, cells preloaded with (42)K(+) retained the isotope, but they lost it rapidly when suspended in 0.05 m MgSO(4). The second-phase changes can be accounted for by the energy-dependent accumulation in an osmotically active form of K(+) and other metabolites by cells depleted of intracellular solutes.