[ RadSafe ] Radioactive medicine being tracked through rivers

Sun Mar 25 20:42:14 CDT 2012

Why Jerry, you old sleuth!  Was I that transparent?

Dan ii

On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 2:05 PM, Jerry Cohen <jjc105 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Dan.
> Apparently, you believe that logic and reason should play a role in radiation
> risk perception. My goodness, what a revolutionary concept!
> Jerry
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Dan McCarn <hotgreenchile at gmail.com>
> To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
> <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
> Sent: Sun, March 25, 2012 11:38:50 AM
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radioactive medicine being tracked through rivers
>
> Dear Brad:
>
> Yes, this is an enigma.
>
> By my calculations there are about 4-6 KCi of 222-Rn being released
> along with progeny in the San Luis Valley, Colorado from spray
> irrigation.  Each source from spray irrigation covers a 400 m diameter
> circle on the ground. The release from a single one of these many,
> many sources is greater than the radon release in an ISR (In-Situ
> Recovery) uranium mining operation, yet no one seems to care or even
> compare.  They are only interested in the mining, not the farming
> release of radon.
>
> Dan ii
>
> On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 12:26 PM, Brad Keck <bradkeck at mac.com> wrote:
>> The discrepancy between what is unsafe from an industrial source (a power
>>reactor or a lab) and what is unsafe from a medical source is of great curiosity
>>to me.    This dichotomy persists across environmental concerns and the very
>>roots of science and public policy.
>>
>> In an industrial setting, we fight every millirem and resist the release of
>>every microcurie, yet in a medical setting, radiation doses to treat and even to
>>PREVENT cancer  exceed those of occupational limits by orders of magnitude -
>>these are what medical science finds to be necessary to REDUCE risk.  Releases
>>to public sewer, vastly exceeding what industry would even contemplate are
>>commonplace and done without a moment's thought - the very same treatment works
>>we defend against every Bq are of course shared with the hospitals.  And,
>>perhaps most surprisingly, the public and it's elected officials are
>>knowledgable of and quite satisfied with this arrangement.
>>
>> As Stewart notes below, this has been well known and thoroughly documented for
>>decades.  Yet, we make no progress in the arena of public perception or public
>>policy toward an appropriate association of risk to industrial necessity nor
>>toward some equivocation to medical practices in this regard.  Indeed we strive
>>daily to further limit already tiny risks (If indeed risks at all) - only to
>>widen this perception gap.
>>
>> If nuclear power, science and even medicine are to be relevant to a better
>>future, this perception gap must be closed; if anyone has an understanding…….
>> send along :}
>>
>> Brad Keck, PhD, CHP
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mar 23, 2012, at 1:49 PM, Stewart Farber wrote:
>>
>>> The issue of radioactivity in discharges by hospitals into sanitary sewers
>>> and the contamination of sewerage plant sludge and effluents has been
>>> discussed widely and well regognized since the 1980s.  I recall seeing a
>>> document issued by the NRC in the late 1980s specifically on this subject.
>>>
>>> In 1991 the NRC modified 10CFR20 in issuing the following, which reads in
>>> part as quoted below:
>>>
>>> ==========================
>>> http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part020/part020-2003.html
>>>
>>> (b) Excreta from individuals undergoing medical diagnosis or therapy with
>>> radioactive material are not subject to the limitations contained in
>>> paragraph (a) of this section.
>>>
>>> [56 FR 23403, May 21, 1991, as amended at 60 FR 20185, Apr. 25, 1995]
>>>
>>> ================================
>>> So a Hospital can discharge I-131 from patient excreta undergoing thyroid
>>> ablations, each of which patient might receive 50 to 100 mCi or more.
>>>
>>> There is probably no major hospital in the US that does  not discharge many
>>> multiples of 1 Curies [ 37 GBq ] of I-131. I believe there is no nuclear
>>> plant in the US which comes close to discharging 1 Ci of I-131 either in
>>> liquid or gaseous release.
>>>
>>> In the 1970s when I was involved with the Maine Yankee Radiological
>>> Environmental Monitoring Program [REMP], this 800 MWe generating plant
>>> airborne Tech Spec release limit for I-131 was 50 millicuries, or less than
>>> the I-131 administered in a single thyroid ablation procedure.
>>>
>>> And this researcher mentioned immediately suspected when he found some
>>> measurable I-131 that a nuclear plant must have been responsible for the
>>> trace levels of I-131 he detected in his sediment studies. Humorous.
>>> Apparently the Delaware academic has been listening too much to the
>>> anti-nuke activists, who manage not just to deceive the general public with
>>> crude manipulations of facts, but mislead scientists that one would hope
>>> might know better. Of course when we hope for something sensible we are only
>>> being hard on ourselves.
>>>
>>>
>>> Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
>>> SAFarber at optonline.net
>>> 203-441-8433
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
>>> [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Dan McCarn
>>> Sent: Friday, March 23, 2012 1:56 AM
>>> To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List;
>>> cs at udel.edu
>>> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radioactive medicine being tracked through rivers
>>>
>>> Hi Roy:
>>>
>>> So another one of those wild & woolly "natural scientists" gets some
>>> insights via radioactive tracers!  Sounds interesting!
>>>
>>> Dan ii
>>>
>>> Dan W McCarn, Geologist
>>> 108 Sherwood Blvd
>>> Los Alamos, NM 87544-3425
>>> +1-505-672-2014 (Home – New Mexico)
>>> +1-505-670-8123 (Mobile - New Mexico)
>>> HotGreenChile at gmail.com (Private email) HotGreenChile at gmail dot com
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 11:34 PM, ROY HERREN <royherren2005 at yahoo.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>> http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2012/mar/medicine-rivers-sediment-032212.html
>>>> Sediment sleuthing
>>>> Radioactive medicine being tracked through rivers
>>>>  10:56 a.m., March 22, 2012--A University of Delaware oceanographer has
>>> stumbled
>>>> upon an unusual aid for studying local waterways: radioactive iodine. Roy
>>> Herren
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>
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>>
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>
>
> --
> Dan ii
>
> Dan W McCarn, Geologist
> 108 Sherwood Blvd
> Los Alamos, NM 87544-3425
> +1-505-672-2014 (Home – New Mexico)
> +1-505-670-8123 (Mobile - New Mexico)
> HotGreenChile at gmail.com (Private email) HotGreenChile at gmail dot com
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