Albert Stevens | |
|---|---|
 Albert Stevens | |
| Born | 1887 |
| Died | January 9, 1966 (aged 78–79) |
| Resting place | Cremains in storage at Argonne National Laboratory and Washington State University |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Albert |
| Occupation | House painter |
| Known for | Surviving the highest known radiation dose in any human |
Albert Stevens (1887–1966), also known as patient CAL-1 and most radioactive human ever, was a house painter from Ohio who was subjected to an involuntary human radiation experiment and survived the highest known accumulated radiation dose in any human.[1] On May 14, 1945, he was injected with 131 kBq (3.55 μCi) of plutonium without his knowledge because it was erroneously believed that he had a terminal disease.[2]
Plutonium remained present in his body for the remainder of his life, the amount decaying slowly through radioactive decay and biological elimination. Stevens died of heart disease some 20 years later, having accumulated an effective radiation dose of 64 Sv (6400 rem) over that period, i.e. an average of 3 Sv per year or 350 μSv/h. The current annual permitted dose for a radiation worker in the United States is 0.05 Sv (or 5 rem), i.e. an average of 5.7 μSv/h.[3]
- ^ Welsome, Eileen (1999). The Plutonium Files:America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War. Dial Press. ISBN 978-0385314022. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
- ^ Moss, William; Eckhardt, Roger (1995). "The Human Plutonium Injection Experiments" (PDF). Los Alamos Science. Radiation Protection and the Human Radiation Experiments (23): 177–223. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
- ^ "Information for Radiation Workers". NRC Web. Retrieved 2022-11-18.