Investigation of internal radionuclide contamination from the analysis of nasal swabs and facial swipes

Nasal swabs and facial swipes have been used to screen potential internal radioactive contamination for decades. However, the ratio between the lung intake and the activity on a swab or a swipe varies according to the nature of the contaminant involved and the exposure conditions such as particle sizes of the contaminant and the humidity in the air. This paper reports the experimental results using stable La₂O₃ as an analog for actinide oxides, focusing on the most important parameters such as humidity, plume velocity, and facial condition at a fixed room temperature of 23 ± 2 °C. The results showed that the effects of humidity, plume velocity, and facial condition vary more on orofacial swipe/lung deposition ratios compared to nasal swab/lung deposition ratios. The amounts on nasal swabs tended to show smaller change with respect to parameters such as plume velocity, humidity, and skin moisture. The amounts on orofacial swipes varied by a factor of 10–15 among the samples collected across all parameters. Such variability would be expected to be even greater in a real-world scenario with a larger range of physiological and environmental conditions.