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Re: hospital contamination incident



Still no venial sins in Bill's worldview. All mortal, every last one.







Original message:

Date: Fri, 27 Dec 2002 09:00:24 -0500

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

Subject: hospital contamination incident



Please note the attached hospital contamination incident from the NRC,

"Event  Notification Report for December 26, 2002."



1.  All of you hospital hp's out there should be aware of this incident,

and assess your vulnerability to a similar incident.



2.  It seems that the NRC is focusing on one tree and ignoring the

forest.  The real issue is not whether the nuclear medicine tech changed

her gloves before handling the package.  The real issue is the

hospital's radiological controls, specifically:  Why wasn't the box

surveyed before being presented for transportation?  (If it was

surveyed, the survey was clearly less than adequate.)  If the box was

shipped as radioactive "empty packaging,"  a survey was needed to assure

that it met the requirements for that shipping category.  If the box was

shipped as nonhazardous, it should have been surveyed before being

released from the restricted area.  If I were the RSO, I'd be concerned

about other contaminated items being released from the nuclear medicine

department.



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

overregulated.  It's NOT a media conspiracy.



The opinions expressed are strictly mine.

It's not about dose, it's about trust.

Curies forever.



Bill Lipton

liptonw@dteenergy.com







Hospital                                         |Event Number:

39471       |



<snip>





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