[ RadSafe ] I-131 Patients and Taxi driver

Jerry Cohen jjcohen at prodigy.net
Sun Feb 17 11:33:37 CST 2008


As one who is relatively unfamiliar with medical radiology, I am wondering how serious  a risk are we talking about here. Assume, for examlple, a two hour cab ride, and  distance between cab driver and patient of ~ one meter.  What is the "worst case" dose that the cab driver might get? . Is there any de minimis dose below which, we should not be concerned?
  Jerry Cohen

John Jacobus <crispy_bird at yahoo.com> wrote:
  Chris,
There is no requirement to determine if the same cab driver is used all of the time. Again, the requirements are to measure the patient upon release and provide the patient with instructions about reducing their doses for x period of time to the public or family members. If you have a regulatory license, you are required to follow the requirements in your licenses and in the parent regulations. If you want to go beyond that, it is your choice, but you do not get credit for doing so. 

As for a realistic assessment of risk, not dose, the HPS, the ANS (I believe), BEIR VII, and others have position papers or conclusions indicating that effects have been demonstrated in populations below 10 rem (100 mSv).
http://hps.org/documents/risk_ps010-1.pdf



Chris Cavanaugh wrote:
Just out of curiosity, what if the same cab driver works that route? I did 
work in a hospital ER at one time, and hospital used the same cab company, 
and in many instances the cab driver was on a first name basis with the 
hospital staff.

I am a long time lurker, rarely post since I have nothing to share with the 
group. I tend to subscribe to hormesis rather than LNT theories. I would 
though hope that a large hospital would have the sense to check in with the 
cab company to rotate drivers in order to cut back on their exposure.

Chris Cavanaugh
cav427 at cox.net
Yukon, OK
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Moshe Levita" 
To: 
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 12:34 AM
Subject: [ RadSafe ] I-131 Patients and Taxi driver


John,

Suppose the driver exposure will be 20 - 40 mr ( 100-200 mci patient , 1hr 
at 1 meter).
Do we have to inform him about his radioactive patient ?

Moshe Levita
Chief Physicist
Tel Aviv Medical Center

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I would first ask what would be the taxi driver's exposure be? Decisions 
should be based on exposures, not on whether or not the patient is 
radioactive.

Sandy Perle wrote: It would be ethical to notify 
anyone of an impending exposure. The patient would more likely not receive a 
ride home. This is another example for the need of public education.


-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail: crispy_bird at yahoo.com



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"Part of human nature resents change, loves equilibrium, while another part welcomes novelty, loves the excitement of disequilibrium. There is no formula for the resolution of this tug-of-war, but it is obvious that absolute surrender to either of them invites disaster."
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-- John
John Jacobus, MS
Certified Health Physicist
e-mail: crispy_bird at yahoo.com

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