[ RadSafe ] Fatalities due to Internal Radioactive Material

[Jose Julio Rozental]

About the Goiania Accident,  In terms of contaminated people, internal, 
external, treatment, follow up, please read
IAEA: Dosimetric and medical aspects of the radiological accident in Goiania 
in 1987
IAEA site to download 
http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/te_1009_prn.pdf

Jose Julio Rozental

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <james.g.barnes at att.net>
To: "Elsa nimmo" <Elsa.nimmo at varian.com>; <radsafe at radlab.nl>
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 12:06 AM
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] Fatalities due to Internal Radioactive Material


> Hi, Elsa;
>
> You have to be careful with all the prepared internal dose tables and 
> software as they tend to report a dose over 50 years or one year and are 
> modeling dose effects that are stochastic (i.e., chances of contracting 
> cancer) in nature.  What has to be done here is figure out how much dose 
> would have been delivered over about 3 or 4 days, as that would have been 
> the triggering dose that would be needed to deliver a fatal effect from 
> RADIATION (as opposed to a TOXIC effect).  So just the dose that the 
> individual received over the administration of the substance and his death 
> would be pertinent.  NOT a 50-year committed dose, and not an annual dose, 
> for that matter.
>
> My guesstimate is that the threshold for fatal exposure from internal is 
> in the mid-100's to low 1,000's of rad (conservatively; I'll bet it's 
> actually higher).  In this case, it would have to be delivered over about 
> three weeks, and the bulk of it would have to be delivered early in the 
> isotope's retention period.  Additionally, I'm not sure that it is 
> appropriate to take a quality factor correction on the alpha emission, as 
> the QF is for stochastic (i.e., cancer), not determinisitic effects (e.g., 
> blood organ death).  So in that situation, an alpha would be rated purely 
> on the energy it deposited (i.e., you wouldn't multiply by 20).  That 
> suggests it would take a huge amount of material to deliver a fatal dose; 
> particularly one that produced the rapid deterioriation seen in the 
> victim.
>
> The toxic nature of the Po would seem to far outweigh the radiological 
> effects in this situation.
>
> Re: the Goiania event, I think one of the little girls was killed by a 
> combination of external and internal.  I believe the other injuries and 
> fatalities were attributable to the massive external doses.
>
> Jim Barnes
>
>
> -------------- Original message from "Elsa nimmo" 
> <Elsa.nimmo at varian.com>: -------------- 
>
>
>> Hi Jim,
>>
>> Thanks for the response! My question was really one of curiosity. We
>> all know about cases of chronic doses due to ingested material (dial
>> painters), but I couldn't think of fatalities due to acute dose of
>> radiation from unsealed internal emitters (in absence of large dose from
>> an external source).
>>
>> But yes, there was that terrible case with the teletherapy source in
>> Goiania, Brazil.
>>
>> Elsa
>>
>>
>>
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