Re: Patients trigger border radiation alarms

[Tom Hazlett <tomhaz@AOL.COM>]

Dimiter,

You can't do spectroscopy with a portal monitor.  



tgi@cit.bg wrote:



>Clearly there is little if any use of such detection - similar to, say,

>speed limit signs every 10 metres all over the place.

>

> I wonder which of the short lived nuclides used for medical purposes is

>considered a terrorist (or whatever) danger, though. Why do they not set

>the devices to detect only nuclides of interest?

>

>Dimiter

>

>-----------------------------------------------------------------

>Dimiter Popoff                                    ++359/2/9923340

>Transgalactic Instruments, Gourko Str. 25 b, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria

>http://tgi.cit.bg       tgi@cit.bg     dimiter.popoff@firemail.de

>-----------------------------------------------------------------

>

>

>

>  

>

>>From: Susan Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>

>>To: RadSafe <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>

>>Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 1:33 AM

>>Subject: Patients trigger border radiation alarms

>>

>>

>>Patients trigger border radiation alarms

>>New devices are incredibly sensitive. Catch even wads of gum chewed by 

>>patients undergoing radiation treatment for cancer

>>http://snipurl.com/6adq

>>

>>MARGARET MUNRO

>>CanWest News Service

>>Monday, May 10, 2004

>>

>>Jean Perley and two girlfriends were headed for a shopping mall just 

>>across the Ontario-New York border last month when a U.S. customs 

>>officer asked the trio to get out of their car and step inside.

>>

>>The officers quickly dispensed with questions about where they were 

>>going and homed in on Perley, 64, with a hand-held monitor. To Perley's 

>>amazement, she was emitting radiation. "I was dumfounded," she says.

>>

>>Then it dawned on her that she had had a heart test the day before. "All 

>>I knew is that it was a stress Myoview, but no one at the clinic said 

>>anything about radiation," she says. "I had no idea I'd light up at the 

>>border."

>>

>>Myoviews involve injection of medical isotopes, temporarily rendering 

>>people radioactive.

>>

>>U.S. Customs and Border Protection is installing "radiation portal 

>>monitors" at every point of entry, says spokesperson Jim Michie. So far 

>>a few hundred are in place, but more than 2,000 will eventually be 

>>installed.

>>

>>The devices can pick up radioactive molecules from several metres away, 

>>like the ones in Perley's bloodstream as her car passed a roadside 

>>monitor at the crossing near Cornwall, Ont.

>>

>>The guards deliberated almost two hours before deciding Perley posed no 

>>security risk.

>>

>>Doctors say more and more people treated with radioactive compounds are 

>>setting off monitors. Last month, Hamilton doctors reported a cancer 

>>patient was pulled aside by U.S. customs at an international airport 

>>after radioactive "seeds" embedded in his prostate set off alarms.

>>

>>Last fall, a wad of radioactive chewing gum, believed to have been spit 

>>out by someone who had undergone treatment for thyroid cancer, set off a 

>>radiation device scanning a truckload of Toronto-area garbage bound for 

>>Michigan. Another load - containing a radioactive diaper worn by a 

>>cancer patient - also tripped a monitor, closing the border to Canadian 

>>garbage for 18 hours.

>>

>>Michie says the monitors can also pick up low levels of radiation common 

>>to kitty litter and ceramic tiles.

>>

>>

>>    

>>

>

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