[ RadSafe ] shortage of tech 99

John R Johnson idias at interchange.ubc.ca
Tue Jul 28 16:06:08 CDT 2009 

Radsafers

I also "live in the country where this is going on" and agree with Bill.

Hi Bill! I hope all is well at McMaster.

John
***************
John R Johnson, PhD
CEO, IDIAS, Inc.
4535 West 9th Ave
604-676-3556
Vancouver, B. C.
V6R 2E2, Canada
idias at interchange.ubc.ca

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bill Prestwich" <prestwic at mcmaster.ca>
To: "Brennan, Mike (DOH)" <Mike.Brennan at doh.wa.gov>
Cc: <radsafe at radlab.nl>
Sent: Tuesday, July 28, 2009 12:49 PM
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] shortage of tech 99


>I happen to live in the country where this is going on. There has been no 
>outcry from the environmentalists demanding an end to medical isotope 
>production here. The media coverage has been completely in support of 
>continued production. The claim that this problem is a result of "greens" 
>is a figment of the imagination.
> Bill Prestwich
>
> "Brennan, Mike (DOH)" wrote:
>
>> I have to agree with Gary.  The anti-nuke faction (they are 
>> "environmentalist" in a political sense, but usually not in helping sound 
>> environmental decisions being made) have spent decades misrepresenting 
>> pretty much everything about nuclear power, radioactive material, and 
>> radiation in general.
>>
>> When I was an undergrad many universities had research reactors, many of 
>> which produced isotopes for the universities medical center.  Almost all 
>> of them are gone, now, largely because of groups that greatly exaggerated 
>> the risks and ignored the benefits.  One can argue that centralized 
>> production at a very few big reactors is more efficient than many small 
>> reactors, and that may be true; but decentralized production is more 
>> robust.
>>
>> For years the anti-nukes have been using "statistical deaths" to build 
>> their case, claiming vanishingly small releases times inflated population 
>> estimates mean that nuclear reactors are committing "random murder".  I 
>> think it is entirely reasonable to point out that their actions have 
>> quite predictably led to the current situation, and that the decrease in 
>> number of tests being done is equally random murder, in that it will not 
>> be possible to say definitively that a particular person died because of 
>> not getting tested due to the shortage.  If the shortage continues, 
>> however, there will be people whose lives are worsened or ended because 
>> there wasn't enough Tc-99m available.  An the Greens will be responsible.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On 
>> Behalf Of garyi at trinityphysics.com
>> Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 9:31 PM
>> To: radsafe at radlab.nl; Jean-Francois, Stephane; Bill Prestwich
>> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] shortage of tech 99
>>
>> Bill and Stephane,
>>
>> I am sorry to disagree with you both, but Greens are in fact largely 
>> responsible for this shortage of medical isotopes.  Greens (or 
>> environmentalists or whatever label you favor) have for years, decades in 
>> fact, vigourously lobbied governments to make specific energy and nuclear 
>> policy decisions.  They have also worked tirelessly to change public 
>> ideas about radiation and nuclear reactors, and the isotope shortage is 
>> just one result of all this passion and effort.  Sadly though, it is 
>> certainly not the most harmful result.
>>
>> You both speak of government and political problems as root causes, and 
>> make it sound very
>> vague, like blaming random weather patterns for something.   But 
>> politicians do not make
>> random decisions.  They make decisions by calculating the path of 
>> greatest political gain, and such decisions are powerfully influenced by 
>> trends in public opinion.  They can also be influenced by some well 
>> placed money, but that's a post for a different listserv.
>>
>> Certainly there have been other factors, but it seems unbelievable that 
>> any other factor could have been stronger than this decades long crusade 
>> by well meaning fools.
>>
>> -Gary Isenhower
>>
>> On 27 Jul 2009 at 11:25, Bill Prestwich wrote:
>>
>> Stephane is absolutely correct. The result in Canada has been largely the 
>> result of political problems, and the inability to get the Maple reactors 
>> operable. This is now compounded by the government decision to cancel the 
>> Maple project altogether. Interestingly enough, while there has been 
>> plenty of press coverage here, I have neither seen nor heard any mention 
>> of the fact that a Maple is up and running in South Korea. Bill Prestwich
>>
>> "Jean-Francois, Stephane" wrote:
>>
>> > Hi Franz,
>> >
>> > I disagree with your statement putting the onus on the "greens".
>> >
>> > I did have the opportunity to comment the very beginning of the crisis
>> > in Canada in a big Montreal news paper(end of 2007, beginning 2008).
>> > The problem was that our Federal governement took care of business and
>> > fired nothing but the President of the Nuclear Safety Commission, ms.
>> > Linda Keen. They claimed that her organization was asking too much of
>> > the reactor operator (safety measures) and she was responsible of
>> > putting the patients at risk.
>> >
>> > At that time , our "good goverment" was saying that they were doing
>> > this for the good of the patients. I wrote to tell them that going
>> > against  the canadian nuclear watchdog sent a very negative message to
>> > the population (who can you trust if the government can shut down the
>> > watchdog ?)  and was asking in my letter as a conclusion,  only one
>> > simple question: If you care about patients, where is your contingency
>> > plan ? The reactor is old, it will not go on for ever...where is your
>> > back-up plan ?  Of course, they don't have any, we see this today...
>> > and obviously nobody in this industry seems to have one either.
>> >
>> > Blame the politics Franz, not the Greens...that was too easy.Please
>> > note, I am all for nuclear and medicine, but sadly,  we need a crisis
>> > like this one to set the record straight and send a political message
>> > to our deciders.
>> >
>> > Stéphane Jean-François, Eng., M. Env., CHP Manager, Environment and
>> > Health Physics Services Canada Site Functions
>> > (514) 428-8695
>> > (514) 428-8670 (FAX)
>> > stephane_jeanfrancois at merck.com
>> > www.merckfrosst.com
>> > Merck Frosst Center for Therapeutic Research
>> >
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl]
>> > On Behalf Of Franz Schönhofer Sent: Friday, July 24, 2009 4:21 PM
>> > To: 'conrad gmail'; radsafe at radlab.nl Subject: AW: [ RadSafe ]
>> > shortage of tech 99
>> >
>> > Conrad,
>> >
>> > Thank you for forwarding these news, though they are alarming. But
>> > obviously not alarming enough to create a corresponding echo on
>> > RADSAFE!
>> >
>> > Since the research reactor in Seibersdorf, Austria shut down, which
>> > produced not only Tc-99m (or rather its parent nuclide), but also for
>> > example other radionuclides for instance for synoviortesis,
>> > radionuclides needed in technical applications like iridium, co-60 or
>> > others, there are problems. One can import radionuclides from foreign
>> > countries. Not to talk about the addition costs this is most often not
>> > possible for short lived radionuclides or would enhance the radiation
>> > dose to the handler abroad, because much higher activities have to be
>> > handled and shipped!
>> >
>> > Similar problems abound(ed) in Australia. Have they been solved?
>> >
>> > Thanks to those "greens" and "friends of mankind" it might be possible
>> > that people die, because their acute heart diseases cannot be
>> > discovered due to lack of suitable radionuclides.
>> >
>> > Best regards,
>> >
>> > Franz7
>> >
>> > Franz Schoenhofer, PhD
>> >
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