PNNL

Abstract

Because of the lack of existing information needed to evaluate the risks from inhalation exposures to depleted uranium (DU) aerosols of U.S. soldiers during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the U.S. Department of Defense funded an experimental study to measure the amounts of DU aerosols created when Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles are struck with large-caliber DU penetrators, and a dose and risk assessment for individuals present in such vehicles. This paper describes some of the difficulties experienced in dose assessment modeling of the very complex DU aerosols created in the Capstone studies, e.g., high concentrations, heterogeneous aerosol properties, non-lognormal particle size distributions, triphasic in vitro dissolution, and rapid time-varying functions of both DU air concentration and particle size. The approaches used to solve these problems along with example results are presented.