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

["Daniel Kane" <dankane@mindspring.com>]

"For one thing, you are not allowed to ship radioactive material, e.g.,

return waste to the hospital, without proper Dept of Transportation

Training."



"It would be nice if they were told to return their contaminated waste

to

The licensee, i.e., the hospital, but it is not required."  



Comment Follows:



Most (if not all) medical licensees are not authorized to receive

radioactive materials as radioactive waste, nor are they typically

authorized to receive radioactive materials from entities not authorized

to distribute them. If a medical licensee does receive waste, from

outside entities, they are acting as a waste broker, not a medical

licensee. This is a violation.



Further, the waste in question (from I-131 therapy patients) is

biologically contaminated with saliva, blood or urine. Does anyone think

that having untrained civilians carry around biologically and

radiologically contaminated material around town in their car is an

advancement in public health and safety? Especially when compared to

having this same material buried under 10 or 20 feet of dirt in a

virtually unpopulated area?



Daniel F. Kane, Sr.

Medical Nuclear Physicist

Associates in Medical Physics, LLC

 

d.kane@ampmedphysics.com

www.medphysics.com