Knowledge of excretion rates of naturally occurring 210Po in non-exposed people is a prerequisite for assessment of potential internal contamination with polonium. Significant differences in published data on excretion rate of 210Po in urine have been long known. In this paper we study the differences of excretion rates of 210Po in urine of non-exposed population in detail. All available studies of this field published by the middle of 2008 (according to INIS abstracts) have been evaluated.

Simultaneous measurement of tritium in urine and saliva in exposed workers reveals differences in the kinetic fate of this radioelement in these two bodily fluids. During two years, four cases of accidental exposure, affecting seven workers, were used for these bioassays. Since the concentration of tritium increases much faster in saliva than in urine, a ratio estimated at 1 to 30 at about 30 minutes after contamination occurs, it is possible to consider saliva assay as an alternative to urine assay, which is more common practice today.

Widespread contamination occurred in the building in which radiation waste was handled. An occurrence of internal contamination of workers was also suspected. Therefore, workers were measured in vivo and bioassay was performed too. Estimation of committed effective dose had to be based on results of excretion analysis as irremovable surface contamination occurred on the skin and hair of workers, thus influencing results of in vivo measurements. The results of bioassay of 7 workers are presented. Intakes and committed effective doses were calculated from excretion data using IMBA Professional Plus software. The best fits for the most of workers were obtained when combination of acute and chronic intakes was used. Acute intakes varied from 135 Bq to 1300 Bq, chronic intakes from 0.03 Bq/d to 0.3 Bq/d. Committed effective doses from 3 to 36 mSv were estimated for individual workers.