What does tritium do inside the human body?
Tritium enters the human body as gas, water vapour or water. It can be inhaled, imbibed or absorbed through the skin. It can also enter the body when we eat tritium-contaminated food. Much of the tritium that enters the body passes through fairly quickly. Some tritium gets incorporated into organic molecules in the body such as cellular components, hormones and enzymes; this is referred to as “organically bound tritium” and can occur anywhere in the body since tritium passes unimpeded through all membranes and barriers, even into the nucleus or “control centre” of the cell where the genetic material such as DNA is stored. Tritium can be incorporated into DNA molecules where it can do great harm. Once incorporated, tritium is like a tiny ticking time bomb. Sooner or later it undergoes radioactive decay, during which it emits a high speed particle or “subatomic bullet” which can break molecular bonds and damage the coded information in DNA molecules. Much, but not all, of the molecular d
