RE: saftey of being in the proximity of someone on RAI therapy

["Flanigan, Floyd" <Floyd.Flanigan@nmcco.com>]

I believe another concern which the original poster was the risk of spending a couple of hours a day with the patient in question. Here is a little rule of thumb for I-131:



If you had 1 curie (far far more than I would imagine your friend has been given)and you spent 1 hour within 3 feet of that quantity, you would receive 0.282939 Rem of dose. So figure on roughly 0.3mr/hr dose rate @ 3 feet for every millicurie of I-131 your friend has been given. If she has 50 millicuries, the worst case scenerio for first day would be 15mr/hr @ 3 feet. Now ... consider that for 3 hours you are looking at 45mr exposure. Of course, I have no idea what the millicurie content of her treatment has been, although I doubt it is anywhere near 50 millicuries. If you like, you can post the particulars if available and one of us could do a rough dose rate/time/exposure estimate for you. 



Floyd W.Flanigan B.S.Nuc.H.P.



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

From: Gerald Nicholls [mailto:Gerald.Nicholls@dep.state.nj.us]

Sent: Friday, August 20, 2004 11:32 AM

To: kb1ipd@HOTMAIL.COM; owner-radsafe@list.Vanderbilt.Edu;

radsafe@list.Vanderbilt.Edu; Flanigan, Floyd; phil.egidi@state.co.us;

crispy_bird@yahoo.com

Subject: RE: saftey of being in the proximity of someone on RAI therapy





John Jacobus crispy_bird@yahoo.com wrote:



"Maybe it is about time that the regulators consider

the cost outweigh the risk, and consider allowing

landfills to receive and dispose of short-lived

radioactive waste from medical treatments."



I don't think there is a great deal of disagreement on that subject. 

Most of the waste will wind up in the landfill anyway (possibly after

being held for decay).  The problem is who determines that it is

short-lived...the landfill operator or the hospital where the patient

was treated?  My preference would be for the hospital where

appropriately trained people deal with radioactivity on a day to day

basis.  



Gerald Nicholls

NJDEP