Human bones obtained from routine joint replacement surgery as a tool for studies of plutonium, americium and 90Sr body-burden in general public

► Surgery for joint replacement as novel sampling method for studying in-body radioactive contamination. ► Proposed way of sampling is not causing ethic doubts. ► It is a convenient way of collecting human bone samples from global population. ► The applied analytical radiochemical procedure for bone matrix is described in details. ► The opposite patient age correlations trends were found for 90Sr (negative) and Pu, Am (positive).