Re[2]: incontinent patient dosed with ~100 mCi of I-131

[holsopplek@pt.cyanamid.com]

I will be out of the office from June 20 through July 4, returning July 5th.  

Please contact Jennifer Smulling on x2978 if you need imediate assistance.

___________________________________________________________________________
Subject: Re: incontinent patient dosed with ~100 mCi of I-131
From: radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
Date: 06/19/00 17:01:11

Based on my prior experience, and my crude understanding of the regs., I
believe that your responsibility for waste ends when you release the
patient.  Also, the patient is not a licensee and is not obligated, nor
obviously licensed, to decay the waste.  If the landfill has a monitor, so
be it, I-131 is detected all the time at landfills.  I believe that Illinois
inspectors once discovered a partially eaten apple contaminated with I-131
that triggered an alarm.

If you transport the waste back to your facility, you will however, have to
consult the DOT regs.  If the activity is below 70Bq/gram, DOT would
consider it non-radioactive.  Otherwise, you might have to go the whole 9
yards.

If you need additional assistance, please feel free to contact me at the
email address below.

Don Jordan
RAM Services, Inc.
ramservices@lsol.net
Tel. 920-793-2259
Fax 920-793-5886

2306 West River Street
Two Rivers, WI  54241
----- Original Message -----
From: Douglas Simpkin <dsimpkin@execpc.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Sent: Monday, June 19, 2000 12:37 PM
Subject: incontinent patient dosed with ~100 mCi of I-131


> Folks:
>
> Ignorant question time!
>
> Our nuclear medicine physicians are talking about treating an incontinent
> patient with ~100 mCi of I-131. Even if we hold her (and her diapers) in
> the hospital for a few days, she'll still be generating I-131 waste once
> she gets home.
>
> How would others handling this?
> 1. Ignore waste she generates at home, and hope the landfill doesn't
monitor.
> 2. Have her collect her own waste for decay in her basement?
> 3. Have her collect her own waste, and we then pick up the trash for
> decay-in-storage here. What are the DOT repercussions of me having a
> trunk-full of hot Depends?
>
> Any comments?
> Thanks,
> Doug
> Douglas J. Simpkin, Ph.D., D.A.B.R.
> St. Luke's Medical Center
> 2900 West Oklahoma Avenue
> Milwaukee, WI 53215
> phone: (414)649-6457
> fax: (414)649-5118
> email: dsimpkin@execpc.com
>
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information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html