Uranium in the environment

Uranium in the environment is a global health concern, and comes from both natural and man-made sources. Beyond naturally occurring uranium, mining, phosphates in agriculture, weapons manufacturing, and nuclear power are anthropogenic sources of uranium in the environment.[1]

In the natural environment, radioactivity of uranium is generally low,[1] but uranium is a toxic metal that can disrupt normal functioning of the kidney, brain, liver, heart, and numerous other systems.[2] Chemical toxicity can cause public health issues when uranium is present in groundwater, especially if concentrations in food and water are increased by mining activity.[1] The biological half-life (the average time it takes for the human body to eliminate half the amount in the body) for uranium is about 15 days.[3]

Uranium's radioactivity can present health and environmental issues in the case of nuclear waste produced by nuclear power plants or weapons manufacturing.

Uranium is weakly radioactive and remains so because of its long physical half-life (4.468 billion years for uranium-238). The use of depleted uranium (DU) in munitions is controversial because of questions about potential long-term health effects.[4][5]

  1. ^ a b c Ma, Minghao; Wang, Ruixia; Xu, Lining; Xu, Ming; Liu, Sijin (2020-12-01). "Emerging health risks and underlying toxicological mechanisms of uranium contamination: Lessons from the past two decades". Environment International. 145: 106107. Bibcode:2020EnInt.14506107M. doi:10.1016/j.envint.2020.106107. ISSN 0160-4120. PMID 32932066.
  2. ^ E. S. Craft; A. W. Abu-Qare; M. M. Flaherty; M. C. Garofolo; H. L. Rincavage; M. B. Abou-Donia (2004). "Depleted and natural uranium: chemistry and toxicological effects". Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health Part B: Critical Reviews. 7 (4): 297–317. Bibcode:2004JTEHB...7..297C. doi:10.1080/10937400490452714. PMID 15205046. S2CID 9357795.
  3. ^ Georgia State University. "Biological Half Lives".
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference MillerMcClain was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Pattison, John E.; Hugtenburg, Richard P.; Green, Stuart (2010). "Enhancement of Natural Background Gamma-radiation Dose around Uranium Micro-particles in the Human Body". Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 7 (45): 603–611. doi:10.1098/rsif.2009.0300. PMC 2842777. PMID 19776147.