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Topic Name: Researcher found Contamination from depleted uranium in urine 20 years later
Category: Chemical
Research persons: Professor Randall R Parrish
Location: NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory, Kingsley Dunham Centre, Keyworth, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Details
Inhaled depleted
uranium (DU) oxide aerosols are recognised as a distinct human health hazard
and DU has been suggested to be responsible in part for illness in both military
and civilian populations that may have been exposed.
University of Leicester
geologist, Professor Randall R Parrish will be giving this message to the 119th
annual meeting of the Geological Society of
America at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver on 28 October 2007 at
10.05-10.25am.
In his talk entitled: ‘Depleted uranium (DU): its environmental dispersion
and human uptake’ he will outline his research findings on a new method of
tracing DU.
The issue has been the subject of investigations by the
Royal Society (UK), the National
Academy of Science (US) and other bodies, but studies of individuals who
have been clearly exposed to environmental contamination are lacking.
Professor Parrish commented: “Our objective was to develop a high
sensitivity method of EU detection in urine, using MC-ICP mass
spectrometry that would be capable of detecting an individual’s exposure
to DU up to 20 years after the event.
“We developed this method and applied it to individuals, either known or
likely to have had a DU aerosol inhalation exposure, and to a large voluntary
cohort of 1991 Gulf conflict veterans to assess DU exposure screening
reliability and accumulate data on exposure.”
Using his method, Professor Parrish and his research team have found traces
of DU in urine more than 20 years later, in those cases where exposure to DU
aerosol has been unambiguous and in sufficient quantity. This is true even when
the U concentration is at the low end of the normal range.
Most such samples would return a negative screening result with other, less
sensitive, methods.
Professor Parrish added: “Our method has been used to show that it is
capable of resolving legal cases based on a claim of DU exposure. Also it shows
that the occurrence of DU in 1991 Gulf Conflict veterans is likely to be
uncommon to rare, but if a significant inhalation exposure occurred then it can
be detected in urine for decades to come.
“It offers a way to resolve debates about DU and health and provide
perspective on the issue. Resolving the potential implications of DU to health
in contaminated populations is best done by properly testing exposed cohorts.
The cohorts in need of study are those living in DU-contaminated areas of Iraq,
or those living in the vicinity of DU munitions factories with large DU
contamination footprints.”
About Researcher:
Professor Randall R Parrish
Head, NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory
NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory, Kingsley Dunham Centre, Keyworth,
Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK
Telephone: +44 (0)115 9363427
Fax: +44 (0)115 9363302
Email: rrp@bgs.ac.uk
Educational History
B.A. Middlebury College, USA
M.Sc., Ph.D. University of British Columbia, Canada
Selected Current Research Activities
- Himalayan tectonic evolution and erosion in Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and
Tibet with university colleagues.
- The connection of Pliocene rise of the Coast Mountains and climate change/
Northern Hemisphere Glaciation.
- Innovations in chemistry and mass spectrometry in U-Th-Pb dating and other
isotopic systems, including plasma multicollector mass spectrometry.
- Accessory minerals in metamorphism: reactions, P-T conditions, and
isotopic systematics and using accessory minerals to quantify P-T-t paths.
- The measurement of U isotopes in soil and human urine: assessment of
exposure to depleted uranium in military conflicts and sites of U pollution.
- Structure and processes of exhumation-dominated orogens including dating
of UHP metamorphism and exhumation.
- Tectonics of the Scottish Caledonides.
- Short courses in isotope geochronology for the BGS and university
communities
Recent Academic Publications
Parrish, RR, Arneson, J, Brewer, T, Chenery, S, Lloyd, N,
Carpenter, D. 2007. Depleted uranium contamination by inhalation exposure and
its detection after >25 years: implications for health assessment. Science of
the Total Environment, in press.
King, JA, Argyles, T, Harris, N, Parrish, RR, Charlier, B,
Sherlock, S. 2007. First evidence of southward ductile flow of Asian crust
beneath Southern Tibet, Geology, v 8, 727-730.
Parrish, RR, Gough, S, Searle, MP, and Waters, D. 2006.
Plate velocity exhumation of UHP rocks, Kaghan Valley, Pakistan, Geology, v.34,
n. 11, 989-992.
Richards, A, Parrish, RR, Harris, N, Argyles, T, and Li, Z.
2006. Correlation of lithotectonic units across the eastern Himalaya, Bhutan,
Geology, v.34, n. 5, p. 341-344.
Monaghan, A, and Parrish, RR. 2006. Geochronology of
Carboniferous–Permian magmatism in the Midland Valley of Scotland:
implications for regional tectono-magmatic evolution and the numerical
timescale. Journal of the Geological Society 163: 15-28.
Parrish, RR, Thirlwall, M, Pickford, C, Horstwood, MSA,
Gerdes, A, Anderson, J, and Coggan, D. 2006. Determination of 238U/235U,
236U/238U and uranium concentration in urine using SF-ICP-MS and MC-ICP-MS: An
interlaboratory comparison. Health Physics v.90 (2), p. 127-138.
About Geological Society of America
The Geological Society of America (or GSA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of the geosciences. The society was founded in New York in 1888 by James Hall, James D. Dana, and Alexander Winchell, and has been headquartered at 3300 Penrose Place, Boulder, Colorado since 1968. As of 2007, the society has over 21,000 members in more than 85 countries. The stated mission of GSA is "to advance the geosciences, to enhance the professional growth of its members, and to promote the geosciences in the service of humankind". Its main activities are sponsoring scientific meetings and publishing scientific literature, particularly the journals GSA Bulletin and Geology. Its newest publication endeavor is the online-only science journal Geosphere. GSA also publishes a monthly news and science magazine, GSA Today that is open access online.
The society has six regional sections in North America and seventeen specialty divisions.
GSA began with 100 members under its first president, James Hall. Over the next 43 years it grew slowly but steadily to 600 members until 1931, when a $4 million endowment from 1930 president R.A.F. Penrose, Jr. jumpstarted the GSA's growth.
About Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as The Royal Society, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and claims to be the oldest such society still in existence. Although a voluntary body, it serves as the academy of sciences of the United Kingdom (in which role it receives £30 million annually from the UK Government). It is a member organisation of the Science Council.
The Royal Society of Edinburgh (founded 1783) is a separate Scottish body. The Royal Irish Academy (founded 1785) is a separate Irish body.
About National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine."
Recent history
The National Academy of Sciences as of spring 2003 included about 1,922 members, 93 members emeritus, 341 foreign associates, and employed about 1,100 staff. The current members annually elect new members for life. Election to membership is one of the highest honors that can be accorded to a scientist and recognizes scientists who have made distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. There are more than 170 members who have won a Nobel Prize. The National Academy of Sciences is an institutional member of the International Council for Science (ICSU). The ICSU Advisory Committee, which is in the Research Council's Office of International Affairs, facilitates participation of members in international scientific unions and is a liaison for U.S. national committees for the individual scientific unions. Although there is no formal relationship with state and local academies of science, there often is informal dialogue.
The National Academy of Sciences has an annual meeting in Washington, D.C.. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is the scholarly journal of the National Academy of Sciences. The National Academies Press is the publisher for the National Academies, and makes 3600+ publications available for free reading on its website.
The National Academy of Sciences is part of the United States National Academies, which also includes:
National Academy of Engineering (NAE)
Institute of Medicine (IOM)
National Research Council (NRC)
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