AW: [ RadSafe ] Hospital emergency response and RDD waste management

[Franz Schönhofer]

Andrew,

You raise interesting questions, also interesting for people outside the
USA. My first thought was "Ask the DHS, it is their job to deal with
these questions". Honestly, it is also my second and third thought. 

One thing important for this scenario is the question, whether in the
USA regulations on radiation protection (including radioactive waste)
are applicable in the case of an emergency situation. In my home country
Austria this is not the case. After the Chernobyl accident which caused
a relatively high contamination of soil, food, water, etc. in Austria
the regulations from our radiation protection ordinance were not
applicable, because they can only be applied to practices like release
of radioactive material from installations. Of course the authorities
tried to keep the dose to the population low by issuing maximum
permissible levels for food to be sold, but this did of course not apply
to food grown by the consumer himself. But you cannot forbid people to
breathe, when the air is filled by high amounts of I-131, Cs-137 and all
the other fission products. Contaminated food not to be sold was not
treated as waste, but for instance lettuce was ploughed into the soil.
The average dose of Austrians was kept at about 40 mrem for the first
year, compared to the maximum allowed 167 mrem/y as related to practices
from industry. But there were of course areas and target groups which
were far above this limit. I do not like the concept of "committed
dose", but in this case it proved quite helpful. 

There is no real concern in Austria about RDD's, but I think in this
case we would take similar action or rather non-action. The main goal
would be, to prevent harm to people, so showering and decontamination
should be the top priority, no matter how contaminated the sewage water
would be. BTW I do not expect, that it would be dramatically, but that's
another story.

Since I have been involved in emergency planning not only in Austria but
also international organisations I would be very interested in the
outcome of your inquiry.

Best regards,

Franz

Franz Schoenhofer
PhD, MR iR
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
AUSTRIA
phone -43-0699-1168-1319


> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] Im
> Auftrag von Andrew Lukban
> Gesendet: Dienstag, 01. März 2005 23:20
> An: radsafe at radlab.nl
> Betreff: [ RadSafe ] Hospital emergency response and RDD waste
management
> 
> 
> I am the RSO in a hospital in New York City. Our hospital Emergency
> Management Committee has been charged with planning a procedure of
> response to emergency situations associated with radiation dispersal
> devices (RDD's or "dirty bombs".) It is rumored that the next round of
> city-wide table-top exercises for emergency preparedness are to
involve
> RDD scenarios. There are many things invloved with such a scenario
which
> range from detection (portal monitors), isotope identification
(handheld
> MCA), determination of internal decontamination (swab nostrils and
mouth
> and count), actual decontamination (undress, shower), calculation of
> scheduled quantities in sewage from mass showering (close my eyes),
> treatment (should be teh doc's job), dose calculations (call REAC/TS)
> and... waste management (?).
> 
> I can almost deal with all the first steps but find myself bothered by
> "waste management". I suppose it is not "waste" but, rather,
"evidence"
> if it were involved with an act of terrorism. What could be used for
an
> RDD? By nature of it being "dispersed" to cause maximum panic, it is
> also more spread out and less concentrated when concerns about
> contamination are brought up. This is different then from a single
> source planted in one place and resulting in plain ol' external
exposure
> because the hospital would not be dealing with radiaiton contaminated
> patients and produce radiation "waste" that I would ten have to deal
> with.
> 
> Liquid RAM would likely be stolen from a medical purpose (likely
imaging
> and not oncology) and is likely the the easiest to disperse but is
also
> the shortest lived. Longer lived, higher specific activity material
have
> half-lives > 65 days and usually is from a solid form and would have
to
> be crushed for dispersal if the mode of dispersal is not via
explosion.
> It is interesting to note that regulations prevent us from doing
> decay-in-storage for materials with half-lives >65 days. I would be
> requird to return it to the "vendor" - "Hello Mr Terrorist, here's
your
> stuff back." No matter. Either way, both short lived and long lived
RAM
> "waste" now present at the hospital resulting from decon, emesis,
feces,
> etc. would not have been "purchased according to our license" and the
> institution should not be responsible for storing or disposing it. We
> can follow due diligence in preparing for proper radiation safety
> procedure to contain and isolate the stuff, but what is the limit of
> preparation? Should we prepare for storing clothing contaminated with
> therapeutic amounts of powdered Co-60? How many Pb lined steel drums
is
> considered OK? What government entity will say that the "foreign RAM
of
> extramural origin" is "their problem" and will pick it up? Should I be
> pursuing a memo of understanding with some magically appropriate
> government entity? Real estate is big problem in NYC and there is no
> "spare parking lot" that can be used to contain RAM in an emergency
> scenario.
> 
> The more I think about it, the more I think that the conclusion is
that
> "radioactive waste" from an RDD emergency is NOT the hospital's
problem
> in the long term. However, what is considered the short term (when
will
> it no longer be my problem because someone will remove it) and who is
> going to be responsible for it (who will remove it)?
> 
> Sorry for the venting...
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