Research and analysis

Monitoring by nose blow sampling

This investigation (HPA-CRCE-030) describes the potential for developing nose blow sampling into a screening method for exposure to radionuclides.

• From: Public Health England
• Published: 1 January 2012

Documents

HPA-CRCE-030: An investigation of monitoring by nose blow sampling

Ref: ISBN 978-0-85951-711-9

PDF, 676 KB, 36 pages

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Details

Nose blow sampling is used to identify people who may have radionuclide intakes. Such monitoring had shown that the activities cleared by nose blows produced on-demand have little relationship to the intake size.

In contrast, a human volunteer study of nasal deposition and clearance had found that the activities of nose blow samples produced are related to the activity initially deposited in the extra-thoracic (ET) airways which depends on the time between intake and nose blow.

A pilot study investigated if a method of nose blow sampling could be developed to give a simple estimate of the quantity of a suspected intake, and resolve differences between the volunteer study findings and the results of occupational monitoring.

Published 1 January 2012