[ RadSafe ] Fwd: Contamination

[Jeff Terry]

Hi All, 

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Jeff

Jeff Terry
Chair, Advanced Test Reactor Users Organization
Assoc. Professor of Physics
Life Science Bldg Rm 166
Illinois Institute of Technology
3101 S. Dearborn St. 
Chicago IL 60616
630-252-9708
terryj at iit.edu
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ATRNSUOchair
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nuclear94



Begin forwarded message:

> 
> From: Laurence F Friedman <friedmanla at iit.edu>
> Subject: Contamination of others by I-131 therapy patients
> Date: December 3, 2011 1:15:28 PM CST
> To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
> 
> 
> In the annals of the USNRC there are at least two cases of nursing mothers who were administered I-131 and subsequently nursed their infants. One case was a diagnostic study and relatively little damage was done to the infant thyroid. The second, at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, the patient was given a therapeutic dose. The infant’s thyroid was ablated.
> During a routine NRC inspection of a Pittsburgh hospital the staff informed the inspector that a male patient, who had been given 200 mCi of I-131 orally, had had sexual intercourse with a female visitor the day after the administration. The patient was a physician and, according to the staff, the action was not out of character for him,. The hospital tried to get the woman to come in for a bioassay (thyroid count) but she refused. The incident had occurred a year or two before the inspection so no action was taken by the NRC and I don’t believe the incident was documented.
> I don’t know if this is the sort of cross-contamination you are looking for but since all body fluids and the breath contain I-131 after an administration there must be other instances of transfers similar to these.
>  
> Laurence F. Friedman, Ph.D., CHP
> Senior Lecturer, Physics Department
> Illinois Institute of Technology
> Room 182, Life Science
> 3101 South Dearborn
> Chicago, IL 60616-3793
> (312) 842-1789
> friedmanla at iit.edu