Nasal cancer in woodworkers in the furniture industry.

A method is described which uses non-radioactive sodium chromate enriched with chromium-50 (50Cr) for the measure- ment of the red cell survival time. The chromium content of serial blood samples was measured by activation analysis and its rate of fall was used to calculate the T450Cr. There was good agreement between the Tj50Cr and the Tj51Cr, measured simultaneously. The method would allow simultaneous com- parison of the survival times of two different populations of red cells, using two erythrocyte labels which behaved identically. Other advantages and some disadvantages of the technique are discussed.