Re: hospital contamination incident

["Michael G. Stabin" <michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu>]

Bill Lipton wrote:



> The driver's hands were successfully

> decontaminated and subsequent bioassays indicated no readings above

> action levels.  The three contaminated packages and the driver's lab coat

> were bagged and isolated.  No further contamination was found.

>

> 3. This is how public trust is lost and why we end up being

> overregulated.  It's NOT a media conspiracy.



There is, of course, a "collaboration" (to use a milder word) among certain

politically motivated groups to distort and exaggerate dangers in the

public's mind from things nuclear. I don't think anyone really believes in a

coordinated effort by the media to distort information; they are just easily

taken in by the excitement of things that sell papers and TV time. The thing

that concerns many of us is simply the issue of perspective. This "terrible"

incident above involved what serious harm? We should certainly react to the

situation, try to prevent further occurrences, but I maintain that we should

not OVERreact and panic whole communities over minor or nonexistent health

hazards. How many people had their hands contaminated with sulfuric or

nitric acid during shipments last week, does anyone know? I doubt it, as

these things are not scrutinized as well as minor nuclear spills. However I

believe (having had my hands contaminated by acids a few times in the

laboratory) that this hazard is far greater. We have whole communities

evacuated for spills of hazardous chemicals, and there really is a hazard

there, people actually die and are hospitalized from inhaling the fumes, but

there seems to be no call to shut down these industries. Ruth put this in

nice perspective recently:



>Did the Bhopal accident result in people refusing to use hazardous chemical

household products?  Did the 1948 Texas City explosion keep people from

using gasoline and fuel oil?  Did the gas pipeline explosion here in New

Mexico three years ago, that killed 15 people, keep people from using

natural gas?  Did the Cerro Grande fire that evacuated the entire city of

Los Alamos keep people from (a) returning, (b) hiking and camping in

Bandelier National Monument and the adjacent National Forest?  Do the

automobile accidents that kill about 40,000 people each year in  the U. S.

keep people from driving?



It's not an either/or question. I am not saying that radiological hazards

should be ignored because other hazards are greater, just that some balance

should be brought to the process. The St. Lucie panic over microSv doses,

the terrorizing of communities by emergency response teams because of a box

of dirty tools falling on the highway, and saying that we lose public trust

when a minor contamination incident like this occurs, is to me overstating

the problem.



Mike



Michael G. Stabin, PhD, CHP

Assistant Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences

Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences

Vanderbilt University

1161 21st Avenue South

Nashville, TN 37232-2675

Phone (615) 343-0068

Fax   (615) 322-3764

e-mail     michael.g.stabin@vanderbilt.edu

internet   www.doseinfo-radar.com







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