Use of Historical Uranium Air Sampling Data to Estimate Worker Exposure Potential to Airborne Radioactive Particulate in a Uranium Processing Facility

Historical industrial hygiene monitoring records from a uranium processing plant were collected and analyzed to characterize exposure potential to airborne radioactive particulate. More than 2,100 samples were collected during the period of 1954-1968. The data was organized by job title, plant number, and year of measurement. Laboratory analysis of air samples indicated a wide range of potential exposures to the alpha-emitting particulate. Logarithmic transformation of the data was necessary to approximate Gaussian distributions. Geometric Mean (GM) values were used as the measure of central tendency within years. GM values ranged from 23-49 disintegrations per minute per cubic meter of air sampled (dpm/m 3 ) with the years 1963 and 1964 being significantly higher than other years (ANOVA: p < 0.05). When comparing exposure potential across plants, GM ranged from 20-68 dpm/m 3 , with plants 5 and 8 being significantly higher than the others (ANOVA: p < 0.05). Exposure potential for specific job titles acro...