[ RadSafe ] Re: I131 patient during intercontinental flight

[Clayton J Bradt]

I don't think that there is a public health issue here. No one is going to
be hurt by releasing such patients. But there is an ethical issue raised by
the creation of a public nuisance.  There will be contamination all over
the plane.  If passengers and crew knew about it they would be furious.  Is
it OK to subject them to this contamination as long as they don't know
about it?  I think not.

Clayton J. Bradt
Principal Radiophysicist
BERP
518-402-7550


                                                                           
             "Moshe Levita"                                                
             <mlevita at tasmc.he                                             
             alth.gov.il>                                               To 
                                       <radsafe at radlab.nl>, "Clayton J     
             02/11/2009 10:26          Bradt" <cjb01 at health.state.ny.us>   
             AM                                                         cc 
                                                                           
                                                                   Subject 
                                       Re: I131 patient during             
                                       intercontinental flight             
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           




If the patient on the flight has only 7 mc of I-131 in his body, he might
discharge some 1500 microcuries
into the toilet during the flight. While contamination of 1 microcurie '
has
'  Effective Dose Equivalent
of about 0.4 mSv, It seems that contamination is an issue....

External exposure of his neighbor during the flight can be some 0.3 mSv ...

Is this justified ?


----- Original Message -----
From: "Clayton J Bradt" <cjb01 at health.state.ny.us>
To: <radsafe at radlab.nl>
Cc: <mlevita at tasmc.health.gov.il>
Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 4:34 PM
Subject: Re: I131 patient during intercontinental flight


>
>
> It might be easier to resolve this problem if we ignore that fact that
the
> patients' excretions are radioactive. Most readers on this list will
agree
> that after a fairly short time, the I-131 levels within the patient will
> be
> low enough such that he/she poses no actual danger to others. So why not
> suppose that these patients instead of excreting small amounts of I-131,
> are rather excreting skunk scent. Not dangerous, but offensive to others.
> What would be the ethically defensible protocol for releasing these
> patients for mass transit?
>
> If we can answer this, I think we have answered the original question
> posed.
>
>
> **************************************************
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2009 10:21:52 +0200
> From: "Moshe Levita" <mlevita at tasmc.health.gov.il>
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] I131 patient during intercontinental flight
> To: <radsafe at radlab.nl>
> Message-ID: <002601c98a8f$764b1bc0$df83640a at tasmc.corp>
> Content-Type: text/plain;            charset="windows-1255"
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
>
>
> Many Iodine 131 patients arrives in Israel to be treated and then fly
back
> home.
>
> The patient stays in the award until the residual dose is below certain
> level.
>
> (Residual activity is calculated by the measurement of dose rate at 1 m)
>
>
>
> I wonder at what residual activity it will be reasonable to allow the
> patient to fly back to his country.
>
>
>
> One have to take into considerations :
>
>
>
> 1.  Five hours flight of sitting beside another passenger (who might be a
> child or pregnant women)
>
> 2.  Definite contamination of the airplane toilet, toilet cleaning,
toilet
> disposal etc.
>
> 3.  Possible triggering of airport radiation alarm monitors.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Any suggestion will be welcomed.
>
>
>
> Moshe Levita
>
> Chief Radiation Executive
>
> Ministry of Health
>
> Israel
> *************************************************************
>
>
> Clayton J. Bradt
> Principal Radiophysicist
> BERP
> 518-402-7550
>
>
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>




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