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Different colors of dose
I have been a member of this list for almost two years now and never felt
the need to post until now. In the last six months, I have been diagnosed
with two primary cancers, kidney and thyroid. Luckily - both were caught
early, so I expect to be around for a long while.
My issue originates from my going to get a bone scan (27 mCi Tc-99m-MDP)
and the rad tech telling me I'm not getting any more dose than if I stayed
out in the sun for an hour. How do you even begin to counter that? (A
Landauer OSL on my hip over 3 days gave a dose of 67 mrem). Secondly, is
the fact that this 27 mCi is completely "safe" for me for medical purposes,
but if I wee to encounter this same isotope and activity at my facility, it
would be regulated and *I* would become a radiation area and visitors
wouldn't be allowed near it. But since I got it from a medical facility,
it was okay. I dunno is the 140 keV gamma from safer if it is given to me
in a medical facility??? I think not. There's so much hypocrisy to the
whole thing in my mind.
What about from CTs of the head, neck, abdomen and pelvis? Again, no harm
since it's a medical issue - but I encounter it at work...and it's just a
horrible thing.
I won't even go into the 225 mCi I-131 I'm getting ready to ingest..
I think this is a discrepancy that should be pointed out and addressed with
folks across the board. I've certainly incorporated this information into
the tours that I give at my facility.
Thoughts anyone?
Donna J. O'Kelly, Ph.D
Laboratory Manager
Reactor Health Physicist
Nuclear Engineering Teaching Laboratory
The University of Texas at Austin
J.J. Pickle Research Campus
10100 Burnet Road, Building 159
Austin, TX 78758
office: (512) 232-4174
fax: (512) 471-4589
http://www.me.utexas.edu/~netl
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