Meaning of boneseeker | Babel Free

Definitions

Any element, especially a radioisotope, that has a tendency to accumulate in bones.

Equivalents

Examples

“Some isotopes that are not alpha-emitters are also "bone[-]seekers," and are not well eliminated. The result is that even a small quantity of these materials, retained in the body, may lead to depression of bone marrow activity, and to serious bone lesions.”

“The bases of working limits for environmental contamination are the permissible limits for internal emitters. If the internal emitter is a bone-seeker (examples are plutonium, Sr⁹⁰, and the rare earths) the criterion for establishing limits is based on the history of humans who have had radium deposited in their skeletons. To experimentally find the maximum quantity of a radioactive bone-seeker that can deposit in the human skeleton without adverse effect, it is usual to compare the toxicity in experimental animals of the bone-seeker with that of radium.”

“In general, localization of the rare-earth "bone-seekers" was poor except for ¹⁵⁷Dy, which compared well with ⁹⁹ᵐTc-PP and ⁹⁹ᵐTc-DP; ¹⁵⁷Dy was also helpful in studies of the abdomen and pelvis because of its failure to concentrate in the gastrointestinal tract.”

“These studies demonstrated that beside radionuclide retention anatomical and physiological factors affect the induction of radiation damage from incorporating α-emitting bone seekers to bone marrow.”

“"The guy that just left—what's he got in his lungs?" / "Well, I'm not very sure. But the two best candidates are uranium-233 and plutonium-239, one or both." / "They're in his bones too, aren't they?" / "Yeah, they're both boneseekers. And they've got half-lives of one hundred sixty-two thousand and twenty-four thousand years respectively. So they stay hot for a long time."”

“Lead is a bone seeker; it is found in bone mineral with a 70% higher level in cancellous bone than in compact bone.”

“[I]n general, inland waters exhibit much (2–3 orders of magnitude) higher concentrations of ²²²Rn than of ²²⁶Ra. This fact has, however, only very little meaning from the point of view of radiological protection, because ²²⁶Ra being a long-lived, alpha-active boneseeker, belongs to highly radiotoxic substances, whereas ²²²Rn, a short-lived noble gas, does not.”

CEFR level