[Wounds and burns of the skin polluted by alpha irradiation in personnel of radiochemistry enterprises].

Records of pollution by plutonium and americium 241 of skin wounds and burns in the personnel of the Mayak plant in 1948-1992 are analyzed. Traumas occurred in 286 (7.2%) workers, mechanical injuries were 84.1% of these. A high incidence of wound contamination was recorded in the workers engaged in mechanical processing of plutonium. Altogether 34.1% of injuries had alpha-radiators in residual amounts after debridement, though their levels did not surpass the minimal levels of radionuclide detection.