RE: Different colors of dose

["Peter Thomas" <Peter.Thomas@arpansa.gov.au>]

Donna,



Well of course the point is that you are supposedly getting some benefit

from

your medical radiation doses in terms of either direct treatment or in

diagnosis

that enables the determination of appropriate treatment.  You take on

the

radiological risk and you get the medical benefits.  Occupational

exposure and

environmental exposure are entirely different animals in that you

receive no

medical benefit (OK Howard, Jerry Cohen, etc no benefit is ASSUMED) but

you

still take on the radiological risk.



Now of course this does not mean that there is carte blanche in

radiation dose

for medical purposes, the guiding principles of justification and

optimization

come into play.  The medical dose should be no more than is required to

adequately provide the treatment or information sought and should

provide

clear advantages over alternatives.



That at least is the theory :-)



Peter Thomas

Medical Physics Section

ARPANSA

 





-----Original Message-----

From: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

[mailto:owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu] On Behalf Of Donna O'Kelly

Sent: Friday, 2 April 2004 2:26 PM

To: Radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

Subject: 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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