Tritium Hazard via the Ingestion Pathway

The classic methodology for estimating dose to man from environmental tritium ignores the fact that organically bound tritium in foodstuffs may be directly assimilated in the bound compartment of tissues without previous oxidation. We propose a four-compartment model that allows for the ability to input organically bound tritium in foodstuffs directly into the organic compartments of the model. We found that organically bound tritium in foodstuffs can increase the total body dose by a factor of 1.7–4.5 times the free body water dose alone, depending on the bound to loose ratio of tritium in the diet.