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Franz, et al -
A short "war story" if you will ... several years ago, we were testing some
continuous real-time gamma monitors in our offices in Atlanta, GA. We had the
monitors set to alarm and initiate a call-back to the control computer at a dose
rate of 50 uR/hr. A colleague of mine had been to an outpatient clinic that
morning and had a radionuclide procedure ... I can't remember right now exactly
what it was, but I believe it used Tl-208. In any case, when he turned the
corner about 50 ft away from the detector we noticed a dramatic increase in dose
rate, and the detector alarmed in about 10 seconds. We were able to use him as a
check source for about 2 days! We also had a gamma spectroscopist at our
laboratory at Georgia Tech who underwent a Tl-208 test, and he was reading
several mR/hr at one inch from his forehead. It was quite a sight to see the
gamma spectrum as he leaned over an open HpGe shield with the detector in
"acquire" mode.
Bottom line is there are a number of medical procedures that may leave a
patient demonstrably radioactive for a period of days ... and it would be nice
if there was some way that they could prove that they themselves were the
source.
Never underestimate the ability of untrained or poorly trained personnel to
wreak havoc with radiation detection equipment!
My $0.02 (what's that in Euro?) worth ...
Jim
>>> "Franz Schoenhofer" <franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT> 2/3/2003 22:17:02 >>> -----Ursprüngliche
Nachricht----- Bill
- Why
limit it to only I-131 ... how about ANY radionuclide with a significant gamma
likely to hang around in the body more than a few hours? I like the concept ...
it's very similar to folks with prosthetics (say artificial hips or knees, or in
my Dad's case, even cardiac stints) having a card to get through metal
detectors. ------------------------------- Jim, In Austria
patients leaving therapy with I-131 are handed over a leaflet, which tells them
the do's and don'ts. (To avoid too close contact with family members, especially
children, not to spill their urine in the bathroom in droplets, etc.) Other
radionuclides are to my knowledge not adminstered in such quantities, that
special provisions should be necessary. Since in Austria police is not equipped
with contamination meters, no problems are to be expected. I personally have
since a few years also two cardiac stents implanted, the P-32 gone since long,
and I can tell you that not a single metal detector at any airport, whether in
the USA, Japan, Europe, Mexico etc. has ever detected them. The mass is much too
low. Best
regards, Franz |