[ RadSafe ] Illinois Hospital Loses Radioactive Material

[Perle, Sandy]

Franz,

Air travel has certainly become more annoying. This past Friday I entered the whole body scanner for the first time. In that it takes about 10 seconds or so, it definitely slows down the process of getting through security. I have no issue with the technology being used, and in my opinion every traveler is a potential terrorist, since one can no longer profile who is assumed to fit a profile, since now "they" recruit individuals who look and act like us, and have every potential to slip through any security screening process. My primary issue is that airline safety is predicated on reaction to a problem once it occurs and not being proactive to stay one or more steps ahead of a very smart enemy. By the way, these terrorists don't just target the USA, but rather they target every country, western or eastern. They don't care. So, I accept the delays and the accommodations that must be put into place. As a very frequent traveler, I'd rather err on the side of caution, than become a statistic one day.

Regulations in many cases pander to the public demands and are not typically science based. You might be interested to learn that the NRC is currently reviewing what may result in lowering the radiation limits in the USA, probably to the 20 mSv per year. This won't happen in the next few years and most definitely not during my working career, but it is coming. While the NRC states that there are no issues with the current regulations, they're considering in order for the USA to be like the majority of other countries. Sort of like the other countries following the USA on airline security regulations.

Last comment regarding the subject of the original post. Issues do and will continue to occur in facilities with radioactive material or radiation generating machines. The regulating bodies can only do so much, and, when there is a change of staff in a facility where the items are not currently used routinely, or perhaps in years, knowledge is lost. That's why it's important for detailed records to be maintained, to prevent loss of knowledge and itemization of what is in a facility.

Regards,

Sandy
____________________
Sander C. Perle
President
Mirion Technologies
Dosimetry Services Division
2652 McGaw Avenue
Irvine, CA 92614

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On Jul 25, 2010, at 2:08 PM, Franz Schönhofer wrote:

> Gary,
>
> I fully support your comment - but------
>
> You have been one of the fiercest critics of my critical comments on US
> regulations. How do you defend under these circumstances all that paranoid
> (please notice that I do not write it in inverted commas) ideas of naked
> scanners, of more and more scanning of freight and personal and passengers.
> Why do I have to take off my belt, my shoes, not to talk about my wallet, my
> watch, my glasses....  when checking in? Obviously I am a potential
> terrorist. Thank you, "America". If this would be only restricted to the US
> if would be bad enough, but the US has successfully extended their
> restrictions to obviously all of the worlds airlines and main carriers.
> Thank you so much USA, for the unbelievable delays I have recently
> experienced in international flights.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Franz
>


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