Re: Hospital Radwaste in the News

[Jim Tocci <jtocci@ehs.umass.edu>]

Richard, Mack L wrote:
> 
> Dear Group:
> 
> The City of Indianapolis has implemented a program to collect radwaste from
> the homes of I-131 patients.  This program was implemented even though the
> Radiation Safety Officers at 3 of the largest hospitals in the city (myself
> included) thought it was a bad idea.  The nuclear medicine physicians at
> those hospitals thought it was a bad idea as well.  The article may be found
> at http://www.starnews.com - scroll down to the byline entitled "City puts
> lid on rare waste."
> 
> The article implies that all local hospitals are participating in this
> program; however, as I said, the 3 largest hospitals are not notifying the
> city when we treat and release I-131 patients.  In lieu of the program, we
> recommended that the operator of the city incinerator consider changing
> their procedures and/or consider changing the language in their incinerator
> permit to allow them to incinerate this waste - that recommendation
> basically fell on deaf ears.  We also pointed out that collecting and
> concentrating this waste in one area is more likely to lead to exposures to
> individuals than simply incinerating it.  I suggested that they had better
> discuss this with the NRC because if some type of incident occurs where
> someone does receive an exposure (real or imagined) from this program, their
> could possibly be some regulatory implications.  To my knowledge, no one
> discussed this program with the NRC.
> 
> I certainly understand why the city employees didn't like sifting through
> municipal waste looking for a contaminated article (e.g., kleenix, "Depends"
> diaper, etc.) - such activities are particularly undesirable in the hot,
> summer months in Indianapolis.  I still believe the answer may be in
> educating the company that operates the city incinerator.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Mack L. Richard, M.S., C.H.P.
> Radiation Safety Officer - IUPUI/Indiana Univ. Med. Cntr.
> Phone #: (317) 274-0330   Fax #: (317) 274-2332
> E-Mail Address:  mrichar@iupui.edu
> 
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Hi Bob,
thought you might be interested in this one.
Jim
-- 
Jim Tocci, Radiation Safety Program Manager
University of Massachusetts - Environmental Health and Safety
(413) 545-2682
http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~safety/prog_radiation.html
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information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html