Basic treatment: Establish a patent airway. Suction if necessary. Watch for signs of respiratory insufficiency and assist ventilations if necessary. Administer oxygen by nonrebreather mask at 10 to 15 L/min. Monitor for shock and treat if necessary ... Anticipate seizures and treat if necessary ... Perform routine emergency care for associated injuries. For eye contamination, flush eyes immediately with water. Irrigate each eye continuously during transport ... Do not use emetics. For ingestion, rinse mouth and administer 5 ml/kg up to 200 ml of water for dilution if the patient can swallow, has a good gag reflex, and does not drool ... Perform routine BLS care as necessary. /Radioactives I, II, and III/
Advanced treatment: Consider orotracheal or nasotracheal intubation for airway control in the patient who is unconscious or in respiratory arrest. Monitor cardiac rhythm and treat arrhythmias as necessary ... Start an IV with lactated Ringer's to support vital signs. For hypotension with signs of hypovolemia, administer fluid cautiously. Watch for signs of fluid overload ... Treat seizures with diazepam (Valium) ... Perform routine advanced life support care as needed. Use proparacaine hydrochloride to assist eye irrigation ... /Radioactives I, II, and III/
Decontamination. 1. Exposure to particle-emitting solids or liquids. The victim is potentially highly contaminating to rescuers, transport vehicles, and attending health personnel. 1. Remove victims from exposure, and if their conditions permit, remove all contaminated clothing and wash the victims with soap and water. b. All clothing and cleansing water must be saved, evaluated for radioactivity, and properly disposed of. c. Rescuers should wear protective clothing and respiratory gear to avoid contamination. At the hospital, measures must be taken to prevent contamination of facilities and personnel. d. Induce vomiting or perform gastric lavage if radioactive material has been ingested. Administer activated charcoal, although its effectiveness is unknown. Certain other adsorbent materials may also be effective. e. Contact Radiation Emergency Assistance Center & Training Site (REAC/TS/: telephone (865) 576-3131 or (865) 481-1000)/ and the state radiologic health department for further advice. In some exposures, unusually aggressive steps may be needed (eg, lung lavage for significant inhalation of plutonium). 2. Electromagnetic radiation exposure. The patient is not radioactive and does not pose a contamination threat. There is no need for decontamination once the patient has been removed from the source of exposure, unless electromagnetic radiation emitter fragments are embedded in body tissues. /Radiation (Ionizing)/
Monitoring of accidental uranium exposures and its effects on the kidney is accomplished by measurement of the uranium excreted in the urine and abnormalities in the clinical urinalyses . Glucose and albumin in urine are among the most sensitive indicators of kidney damage. ...Urinary excretion of gamma-glutamyltransferase /has been found/ to be the most sensitive indicator. These various indicators of renal injury can be assessed within a few hours of exposure to dose levels of at least 0.1 mg of uranium/kg. /Uranium compounds/
Insoluble salts are poorly absorbed. Absorption of uranium salts from sites of im injection and from the peritoneal cavity is poor. ...Following inhalation the absorption of uranium salts from the lung tissues into blood depends upon ... solubility and particle size. /Insoluble uranyl salts/
... Studies /had been done on/ the retention of uranium in bone tissue of beagle dogs after iv injection of 0.3 mg U(VI)/kg body weight. Of the injected dose, 7.7% was retained in the bone tissue, from where it was eliminated with an average half-life of two-and-a-half yr. Elimination varied for different parts of the skeleton from less than a year to no detectable elimination. The longest half-time was seen in cortical bone tissue. /Hexavalent uranium/
In a five-year exposure study on dogs, monkeys and rats exposed to uranium oxide (UO2) dust, the overall biological half-time for uranium deposited in the lung was found to be around 15 mo for monkeys and dogs. Reports from human subjects occupationally exposed to insoluble uranium cmpd /suggested/ .. a two-phase clearance process consisting of a short phase with a biological half-time of between 11 and 100 days, and a slow phase with a long retention time and a biological half-time of between 120 and 1500 days. /Insoluble uranium/