The location of boron-containing dust in the lung, utilising neutron-induced autoradiography techniques with a CR-39 solid state track detector

Abstract

The authors report two new developments in the use of CR-39 to measure boron-containing particles in the lung. In one of these, the relative amount of particulate boron located within a lung tissue section can be estimated by counting the number of tracks produced by the 10B (n, alpha ) reaction. In the other, a lung section, and the location of boron-containing particles within it, can be imaged onto a plate of CR-39. Also discussed, as an incidental finding, is a separate technique to image a lung tissue section onto a pre-etched CR-39 plate while still preserving the original section for staining and histological examination. The ultimate aim is to measure the relative mass and spatial distribution of tourmaline aggregates in post mortem lungs from Cornish tin miners, using a CR-39 homopolymer solid state track detector and neutron-induced autoradiography, with subsequent image analysis on a Quantimet 720.