RE: Dose to others from medical uses of radioactivity, and a PS on

[Jim Kost <jkost@mgpi.com>]

What about prostate cancer patients, some type of radioisotope seed is
used for these patients.

Jim Kost
jkost@mgpi.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Jacques.Read@eh.doe.gov [mailto:Jacques.Read@eh.doe.gov]
Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2000 11:52 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Dose to others from medical uses of radioactivity, and a PS on




A colleague  has been carrying a pocket alarm/dosimeter around for
years,
visiting various DOE facilities.  It has never alarmed.  While
traveling, he
keeps it in his briefcase.  While awaiting a flight at a regional
airport
recently, the alarm went off in his briefcase whenever a elderly
gentleman
walked by.  I compared his experience with the RADSAFE discussion a week
or so
ago about misadministration of 131I, in which 500 microcuries had been
injected
instead of 100 microcuries.  By my rough estimate, 500 microcuries would
given a
dose rate of only 0.03 mr/hr at six feet.  Presumably the gentleman was
not a
thyroid patient.  Did I botch up my dose rate estimate, and are there
other
medical procedures that could give tens of mr/hr at six feet?

P.S.  To answer Al's question: The depleted uranium from the Paducah
gaseous
diffusion plant is believed to have been contaminated by the use of
improperly
decontaminated steel storage cyclinders to receive the UF6 from the
product end
of the cascade.  The DU has typical Pu content of the order of  0.01 to
0.001
Becquerels per gram of uranium.  The cyclinders had previously contained
recycled uranium of a few parts per billion Pu content.

Jacques Read
jacques.read@eh.doe.gov



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