Article: Officials Weigh Risk to Medical Mailings from Irradiation

["jenday1" <jenday1@EMAIL.MSN.COM>]

This aritcle appeared in today's Washington Post and thought it would be of

interest.



Personally, I think irradiation of the mail is based on a knee-jerk reaction

to the anthrax letters that were recieved.  This is an example to the lack

of consideration about the cost and consequences of what irradiation will

do.  I would like to see the money put into public health that would allow

the government to identify and track suspected outbreaks of  disease, and

better testing methods.

-- John



John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

3050 Traymore Lane

Bowie, MD 20715-2024

jenday1@email.msn.com (H)





Officials Weigh Risk to Medical Mailings from Irradiation



By Lauran Neergaard

Associated Press

Sunday, November 18, 2001; Page A07



The doses of radiation the Postal Service plans to use to sterilize mail

that may contain anthrax could destroy some prescription drugs and other

medical products, a federal health expert said Friday.



The Postal Service pledged to find a way to separate shipments from

mail-order pharmacies so drugs are not irradiated. But that may not be

enough to protect all medical shipments, according to Food and Drug

Administration physicist Orhan Suleiman, who is advising the Postal Service

on irradiation.



As an example, he recently showed postal workers the process for a common

test for colon cancer -- the fecal occult blood test. Patients mail a stool

sample for the test to their doctors in an unmarked envelope -- not a

special package that postal workers would know would have to be kept away

from radiation.



Would 5.6 million rads of radiation, the dose being used to sterilize mail,

affect the results of that test? Suleiman said the FDA has no way of knowing

because it has never been tested.



Suleiman told a State Department employee not to use a prescription drug

that an embassy had irradiated in a diplomatic mail pouch, because there was

no way of knowing if the medication had been harmed.



"It's very obvious that many pharmaceuticals can't be irradiated, especially

not at the radiation doses being used here," he said. "We have been drumming

this message home."



So far, only a small percentage of letters -- mail gathered from

anthrax-tainted post offices and government buildings, not the packages most

medical products would be shipped in -- is being irradiated.



But the plan is to sterilize far more mail eventually. The Postal Service is

developing a way to identify and isolate shipments from mail-order

pharmacies so drugs are not irradiated, said spokesman Jerry Kreienkamp.



It would not be difficult, "when we know who the mailer is," to separate a

special shipment, he said. After all, drugs aren't the only issue. Post

offices are also working to separate film and other items that irradiation

would harm.



But Kreienkamp could not answer how the Postal Service would handle other

shipments, such as those from Internet companies that often mail bottles of

pills in unmarked padded envelopes or those from patients mailing medical

samples from home.



"These are all new processes we're going to have to work out," he said.



Suleiman has rejected initial suggestions from postal workers that the FDA

certify which products it is acceptable to irradiate.



An informal survey of major drug manufacturers by the Pharmaceutical

Research and Manufacturers Association confirms his suspicions that no

scientific data are available to determine the safety of irradiating

medications.



Electron beam technology is used to kill germs in meat and other foods but

has not been used on medications. Scientists do know that weaker ultraviolet

radiation can affect certain medical products.



To know which products can withstand irradiation would require testing

"absolutely product by product," said Janet Trunzo, a physicist with the

Advanced Medical Technology Association, which represents makers of

diagnostic tests and other medical supplies. "Some materials are very

resistant to radiation . . . whereas others may be very sensitive."



Suleiman said he suspects that industry will create radiation-proof

packaging for drugs, but that's not here yet. Meanwhile, medical

manufacturers are seeking meetings with the FDA to determine what, if

anything, they should do while the Postal Service figures out how to use

irradiation.



© 2001 The Washington Post Company



************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.