A HISTOLOGICAL KIDNEY STUDY OF URANIUM AND NON-URANIUM WORKERS

Kidney tissue sections were obtained at autopsy from seven persons wit h a history of low level occupational exposure to uranium and histolog ically compared in a blind study with similar sections obtained from s ix reference cases. The pathologist was unable to identify the uranium workers or any uranium-specific nephropathy. This suggests that the c hronic low level of kidney uranium concentration experienced by these workers, which was an order of magnitude lower than the accepted permi ssible level of 3 mu g uranium per gram, did not induce any identifiab le permanent tissue damage.