Occupational Exposure to Tritium

Scenario

Chromosome aberration analysis and micronucleus test were performed in blood lymphocytes of two groups of workers occupationally handling tritium.      (A) Dial painter of radioluminous timepieces in the timepiece industry: 12 women aged 45.83 (SD 9.06) years employed for in luminous dial painting for 11.58 (SD 10.62). The luminous paint consisted of zinc sulfide coated with a tritiated polymer dissolved in an organic solvent (mostly xylene). The preparation of radioactive paint was carried out in a glove box, which was vented to the atmosphere outside the plant. The method used to apply paint to desired surface was manual. The painted objects were air-dried. Urine samples were collected each month and analyzed by a liquid scintillation method. The concentration of tritium in urine ranged between 1.35 and 9.43 MBq/l at the time of cytogenetic analysis. Controls: 20 woman office workers aged 48.4 (SD 9.11) years in the timepiece industry.      (B) Workers of pasting glass capsules filled with tritium in weapon industry: 12 women aged 40.0 (SD 7.85) years employed for 6.0 (SD 1.95) years working on pasting tritium-filled glass capsuled onto surface of weapon. In this case, irradiation could occur via accidental breakage of capsules during pasting. In the urine samples, no detectable concentration of tritium was found. Controls: 20 woman office workers aged 32.6 (SD 8.4) years working in weapon industry.

Reference

Joksié, G. and Spasojević, V. (1998): Chromosome analysis of lymphocytes from radiation workers in tritium-applying industry. Int. Arch. Occup. Environ. Health, 71:213-220.

Chromosome aberration analysis

.
	(A) Radioluminous dial painters
	Subject	Age	Employed	3H	No. of	Chromosome aberrations (%)			Micronulei (MN) per 1000 CB cells
	ID	(yrs)	(years)	(MBq/l)	cells	Dics	Rings	F	No	0	1	2	3	4
	1	52	32	9.43	181	4.97		1.10	84	930	65	2	1	2
	2	59	15	4.30	188	1.05		0.53	28	975	23	1	1
	3	61	29	3.99	212	3.30	1.41		59	954	37	6	2	1
	4	51	20	2.89	190	1.05			29	973	25	2
	5	36	6	4.50	200	2.00		1.00	27	977	20	2	1
	6	47	2	3.43	232	0.86	0.43	0.50	21	983	14	2	1
	7	39	15	4.43	200	1.00			30	980	13	4	3
	8	49	5	1.35	200	1.00			23	982	15	2		1
	9	37	6	2.51	203			1.00	23.8	993	10	3		2
	10	34	1	1.54	199	2.00	1.00		32	986	7		3	4
	11	47	1	4.30	180	0.55		0.55	17	985	14		1
	12	38	5	3.90	196	1.53	1.02		48	970	20	5	2	3
	Controls			-	4,483	0.05		0.111	7.04	54,924	288	30	13
	(B) Weapon industry workers
	Subject	Age	Employed	3H	No. of	Chromosome aberrations (%)			Micronulei (MN) per 1000 CB cells
	ID	(yrs)	(years)	(MBq/l)	cells	Dics	Rings	F	No	0	1	2	3	4
	1	37	5	-	200				16	985	14	1
	2	55	3	-	200		2.00		22.5	980	17	3
	3	33	7	-	181		0.50		10	990	10
	4	36	8	-	200				12	989	10	1
	5	38	5	-	200				3	997	3
	6	33	5	-	196				10.9	994	11
	7	36	7	-	201		2.00		17.8	991	13	1	1
	8	36	7	-	245		0.81		12	989	10	1
	9	47	9	-	200		0.50		11.0	989	11
	10	38	5	-	200		1.00		12	988	12
	11	36	8	-	212				14	988	10	2
	12	55	3	-	239	0.83		0.41	31	978	16	3	3
	Controls			-	2,126	0.047		0.09	6.98	21,747	117	13	3
															.