Measurement of radioactive contamination by whole body spectrometry

This paper describes a whole body counter which has been used to measure contamination levels of persons over the past 3 years. The results from 2,600 measurements are discussed. The evolution of the mean caesium-137 body burden activity, from 1959 to date, is reported. The first results of a study on iodine-131 metabolism in order to evaluate the hazards of iodine contaminations are given. For continuous exposure the amounts of iodine-131 activity in the thyroid and in the rest of the body are in the ratio 86:14 implying a maximum permissible body burden of 0.16 μc iodine-131. © 1964 Health Physics Society.