Re: "Oops, I did it, again." (medical misadministration)

["Franz Schoenhofer" <franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT>]

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

Von: Fritz A. Seiler <faseiler@NMIA.COM>

An: William V Lipton <liptonw@DTEENERGY.COM>

Cc: Scott, Bob A <bscott@rwmc.org>; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

<radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

Datum: Freitag, 14. Juni 2002 23:07

Betreff: Re: "Oops, I did it, again." (medical misadministration)





>YEEEOOOWWW!!

>

>How difficult can it be to divide by 100 ?!  Or shift the decimal point

>2 places to the left !?

>

>HAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRDDDD!!!

>

-----------------------------------------------



Fritz,



It is very dddiiifffiiicccuuulllttt! I had to undergo this change especially

during and after the Chernobyl accident, where I suddenly found, that "the

rest of the world" - except the USA, the Sovjetunion, Japan, Saudiarabia

etc. used Sieverts, milliSieverts, microSieverts, also Grays etc. Though of

course it was less difficult to change the mrem, microrem etc. to the mSv

etc. than to change the nanoCuries and the picoCuries (the latter being of

no importance during this period....) to the Bq, mBq.... For comparison

reasons I always remember that 16 nCi/kg (the limit for Cs-137 concentration

in Austria for most foods) was approximately 600 Bq/kg, (the limit for the

European Union of which Austria was not a member then). Otherwise I would

not be able to tell you anything about the contamination of food and

environment in Austria in Bq per something, but I could do it perfectly in

nCi per something. After the Chernobyl accident I worked a lot with radon

both in drinking water and in indoor air - I cannot tell you in a

presentation about pCi/l or m3, but I can do it perfectly in Bq/l and m3!



Even worse is the situation in Europe, since we changed in most countries to

the new currency EURO - whatever was 100 Austrian Schilling before is now 7

Euros. How to compare prices?



To change from units to other units is a rather common process and I am

sure, that the most "stubborn" (sorry, I do not know another expression)

fans of Curies will learn the Bq and after a few years will have problems to

read the old literature with its Curies and mrem etc.



One case where I started laughing in a rather serious situation, was when I

was on the surgery table for a heart angiography and I noticed on the x-ray

machine the units of cSv! I assure you, that during the angioplasy and the

balloon dilatation I had a lot of fun with both the cardiologist and the

staff, because they obviously appreciated to have a patient, who even in

this situation could laugh.



Bequerels from now on!



Franz









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