THE RETENTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF RADIOACTIVE MERCURIC OXIDE FOLLOWING ACCIDENTAL INHALATION

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Abstract
Techniques of body radioactivity measurement were used to study the behaviour of 203Hg in two men who had accidentally inhaled aerosols of irradiated mercuric oxide. In one subject, two phases, involving biological half-lives of ∽2 days and ∽24 days, were apparent in the lung clearance pattern deduced from studies commencing 3 days after intake; in the second, lung clearance appears to have been more rapid. The major site of systemic deposition was the kidney, cleared with biological half-lives of ∽60 days and ∽37 days in the two subjects. There was also evidence of uptake by the brain (half-life ∽23 days) and of a widespread distribution in soft tissues (∽22 days). There were no indications of deposition in the liver. Excretion (measured in one man only) was predominantly urinary after 40 days, when lung clearance was substantially complete and most of the retained activity was present in the kidneys.

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