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Total radiation for Japan nuke plant workers highest ... AND (picturesfrom San Francisco, Sausalito and Madrona Manor posted)
Note: Pictures from San Francisco, Coit Tower Murals, Sausalito and
Madrona Manor posted:
http://sandy-travels.com/sfo.shtml
Index:
Total radiation for Japan nuke plant workers highest
Experts Comment on Angioplasty X-Rays
New Booklet Helps Patients Better Understand Radiation Therapy
Ukraine secret police seize radioactive caesium
==================================
Total radiation for Japan nuke plant workers highest
TOKYO, May 7 (Kyodo) - The collective radiation exposure for nuclear
plant workers in Japan has remained highest among major countries
with such facilities for four consecutive years, prompting Japan's
nuclear safety agency to begin studying how to improve maintenance
procedures to catch up with the world trend of reducing exposure.
The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has begun
analyzing procedures to service reactors in other countries. It hopes
to come up with improvements by the next meeting on the Convention on
Nuclear Safety in 2005 after Japan's situation was criticized at the
last meeting in Vienna in April 2002.
Japan's average collective radiation count for workers per light-
water reactor was 1.55 man-sieverts in fiscal 2002, according to the
Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization, an administrative agency.
This was higher than the 1.31 man Sv in the United States, 1.00 man
Sv in Germany and 0.97 man Sv in France. The Czech Republic recorded
the lowest at 0.20 man Sv.
The man Sv unit represents the collective annual exposure experienced
by all workers needed to maintain each reactor.
However, an official of the organization said it should be noted that
since a large number of workers are involved in servicing nuclear
plants in Japan, the exposure per person is low despite the
relatively high collective dose recorded.
Wataru Mizumachi, head of safety information at the organization,
said, "If we look at the radiation export per person, it poses no
problem at all to the workers' health. Japan has not been making full
efforts to reduce the exposure but we can do that if we revise the
procedures."
The organization said it believes Japan's relatively high figure was
due to an increased number of maintenance checks conducted after
Tokyo Electric Power Co., the nation's largest utility, was found to
have covered up problems at its plants.
It may also have been due to measures taken by other countries in
recent years to reduce radiation exposure to their workers, the
organization said.
------------------
Experts Comment on Angioplasty X-Rays
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - X-rays used during angioplasty can cause
severe skin burns, and many cardiologists need more training in how
to minimize radiation exposure to patients undergoing the procedures,
experts warned on Friday.
The benefits of the operation far outweigh the side effects, but
experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency said doctors they
must learn how to reduce the radiation risks.
During angioplasty, a catheter attached to a balloon is threaded
through the blood vessels to open a blocked artery by squeezing the
plaque against the walls. The technique often eliminates the need for
open-heart surgery. To guide the catheter to the right spot, doctors
use fluoroscopy, a technique that provides live X-ray images.
But the radiation used in fluoroscopy is much stronger than that used
in normal X-rays, and a small number of patients suffer skin damage.
Some could later develop cancer because of the exposure, said Dr.
Madan Rehani, a radiation safety specialist with the IAEA.
The radiation problem is not new - the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration in 1994 alerted U.S. hospitals about the risk for
radiation injury in the procedures - but many cardiologists still
lack training about how to handle the radiation danger, Rehani said.
"It is shocking," Rehani said."X-rays have been used for decades
safely, so people think they are safe."
He estimated that about one in 10,000 angioplasty patients suffer
severe skin injuries - some so bad that they require skin grafts.
About 1 million angioplasties are performed worldwide each year, and
the number is growing fast.
Cardiologists should educate themselves about the radiation risks and
take steps to reduce them, for example, by keeping the radiation
source as far away from the patient as possible, and by moving the
beam in extended procedures to avoid exposing the same patch of skin,
Rehani said.
Patients with radiation skin burns often are misdiagnosed because
their physicians or dermatologists don't see the connection between
the skin damage and the fluoroscopy, Rehani said. Early symptoms,
which arise days or weeks after the angioplasty, include a rash.
The benefits of angioplasty - a procedure that is less risky than by-
pass surgery and has saved the lives of many heart patients - far
exceed the risks of radiation exposure, said Dr. Guglielmo Bernardi,
a cardiologist based in Udine, Italy.
"We can do better and better if we perform the procedure in an
optimized way," he added.
The Vienna-based U.N. nuclear agency held a two-day meeting ending
Friday to teach cardiologists from 25 mostly developing countries
about the problem. Of the 27 cardiologists taking part in the
program, 88 percent said the meeting was their first formal training
in radiation risks.
The meeting was part of an agency action plan to reduce the radiation
dangers facing patients.
---------------
New Booklet Helps Patients Better Understand Radiation Therapy
FAIRFAX, Va., May 4 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of a continuing effort to
help patients and their families better understand how radiation
therapy works to safely and effectively treat cancer, the American
Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology has published the new
patient information brochure Radiation Therapy for Cancer: Facts to
Help Patients Make an Informed Decision.
Available free to patients and cancer support groups, the 28-page
booklet provides useful information as well as pictures to help
cancer patients considering radiation therapy as a treatment option.
Radiation, alone or in combination with other cancer treatments, can
be used to successfully treat many different types of cancer --
including breast, lung and prostate cancers -- with minimal side
effects. Modern technology allows the radiation oncology treatment
team to effectively treat tumors more powerfully and precisely while
sparing the healthy tissue surrounding the tumor.
The brochure walks patients through every step of radiation therapy
from preparing for treatment to treatment delivery to recovery. In-
depth information on the different types of radiation therapy
available will help patients make an educated decision when
discussing their treatment options with their doctors. The booklet
also gives patients unique information, such as questions to keep in
mind when meeting with a radiation oncologist and a glossary of terms
relating to cancer and radiation therapy. The many pictures help
patients visualize how the radiation oncology team maps out radiation
therapy treatments and the equipment that they will use to shrink or
eliminate the cancer.
"We are very excited that we are able to provide this great source of
information on radiation therapy for patients and their families,"
said Francine Halberg, M.D., Chair of ASTRO's Communications
Committee and a radiation oncologist at Marin Cancer Institute in
Greenbrae, Calif. "A diagnosis of cancer can be overwhelming and we
hope that this booklet can be a source of comfort and knowledge to
help them to develop a better understanding of their treatment
options."
Copies of the brochure are available free to patients and patient
advocacy organizations by contacting Beth Bukata at 1-800-962-7876 or
bethb@astro.org. The brochure can also be viewed online at
www.astro.org/patient/. To learn more about radiation therapy or
ASTRO's 46th Annual Meeting, scheduled for October 3-7, 2004, in
Atlanta, please visit www.astro.org.
ASTRO is the largest radiation oncology society in the world, with
more than 7,500 members who specialize in treating patients with
radiation therapies. As a leading organization in radiation oncology,
biology and physics, the Society is dedicated to the advancement of
the practice of radiation oncology by promoting excellence in patient
care, providing opportunities for educational and professional
development, promoting research and disseminating research results
and representing radiation oncology in a rapidly evolving
socioeconomic healthcare environment.
--------------
Ukraine secret police seize radioactive caesium
KIEV, May 7 (Reuters) - Ukraine's SBU secret service arrested three
people and seized two cases containing highly-radioactive caesium-
137, the SBU's press service said on Friday.
Nuclear experts say caesium powder would be ideal for a so-called
"dirty bomb," a conventional explosive laced with radioactive
material. They say such bombs would cause more fear and panic than
physical damage.
The three men from the southern Sevastopol region were trying to sell
the two cases with caesium for $120,000. Caesium is a highly-toxic
radioactive substance that can explode in very cold water but is used
in agriculture and in atomic clocks.
"Buyers and sellers were caught as they were trying to sell the
containers. A criminal case was launched," it said in a statement.
"An investigation showed cases contained caesium-137 which poses a
real threat to the life and health of people."
Officials gave no other details.
Caesium was responsible for the world's second worst civilian nuclear
contamination disaster after Chernobyl.
In 1987, a single open canister of the substance in Goiania, Brazil,
exposed 249 people, seriously injured 10 and killed four.
In 1996, Chechen rebels placed a container with the powder in a
Moscow park but it was never dispersed.
Eastern Europe's vast arsenal of nuclear technology, accumulated
during the Cold War, is of major concern to both the United States
and the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, as it remains open to theft
and black market trade.
Nuclear proliferation experts also say that individual nuclear
scientists, underpaid since the collapse of Soviet rule, may be
secretly transferring sensitive technology to what Washington calls
'rogue' states for cash.
Ex-Soviet countries, including Russia and Ukraine, have denied the
allegation.
Ukraine, which gave up all its nuclear weapons after independence in
1991 but is home to some of Europe's largest nuclear power stations,
is trying to strengthen security and border controls since becoming a
neighbour of an enlarged European Union on May 1.
Earlier this year border guards on Ukraine's western border stopped a
man trying to smuggle uranium into Hungary.
***************************************************************
Sandy Perle
Vice President, Technical Operations
Global Dosimetry Solutions, Inc.
3300 Hyland Avenue
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Tel: (714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100 Extension 2306
Fax: (714) 668-3149
E-Mail: sperle@globaldosimetry.com
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/
Global Dosimetry Solutions Website: http://www.globaldosimetry.com/
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