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Re: detecting medical isotopes at airport security
How much are you willing to pay per nuclear medicine procedure for the
added cost of providing this information to all patients? Since this
appears to be a very small problem indeed, the proposed solution seems a
bit over the top.
Note that revised 10 CFR 35.75 actually was a rule that resulted in
substantial medical care cost savings, since formerly many of the patients
affected by this rule were hospitalized for 2-3 days to protect members of
the general public from a radiation hazard. The cost of providing these
patients with oral and written instructions is offset by the costs saved,
but this would not apply to the millions of other patients who have nuclear
medicine procedures each year.
Barry A. Siegel, MD
siegelb@mir.wustl.edu
William V Lipton
<liptonw@DTEENERGY.COM To: Carol Marcus <csmarcus@ucla.edu>
> cc: knwachter@juno.com, radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
Sent by: Subject: Re: detecting medical isotopes at airport security
owner-radsafe@list.van
derbilt.edu
11/24/03 06:29 AM
Please respond to
William V Lipton
10 CFR 35.75 requires, "...instructions, including written instructions, on
actions recommended to maintain doses to other individuals as low as is
reasonably achievable if the total effective dose equivalent to any other
individual is likely to exceed 1 mSv (0.1 rem)...."
I propose that this be revised to: (1) delete the threshold so that it
applies
to all nuc med patients, and (2) add a requirement to include information
on
whether the patient is likely to alarm personnel radiation monitors.
The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
It's not about dose, it's about trust.
Curies forever.
Bill Lipton
liptonw@dteenergy.com
Carol Marcus wrote:
> At 12:46 PM 11/21/2003, knwachter@juno.com wrote:
>
> >Does anyone know of incidents where residual medical isotopes in a
> >traveller's body set off radiation monitors at an airport? A
cardiologist
> >mentioned to me that he had heard of Tl-201 a day or two after a cardiac
> >scan tripping alarms at some airports. Just curious.
> >
> >knwachter@juno.com
>
> Dear Radsafers:
>
> ...
> I really think that
> patients who receive radiopharmaceuticals should be given a card the size
> of a credit card to carry in their wallet for a few weeks, and that the
> card contains all the relevant information and a number to call to
> check. However, I guess that would now be a HIPAA violation!
>
> Ciao, Carol
>
> Carol S. Marcus, Ph.D., M.D.
> <csmarcus@ucla.edu>
>
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