Re: Guidelines for Protection of Pregnant Nurses

["Ron L. Kathren" <rkathren@beta.tricity.wsu.edu>]

Very unlikely, I should say, if you have a competent hospital health 
physicist and properly trained nursing and other hospital staff.  
Although it is quite dated, NCRP Report 54 (1977) gives excellent 
guidance, and a number of factors would need to be considered including 
dose, stage of pregnancy during which the exposure occurred, and, most 
importantly, the personal beliefs and views of the mother, including 
religious views.  Since you are in Israel, you should are doubtless 
aware that an Orthodox Jew might come to a very different decision than a 
secular Jew or a Moslem based on the same set of facts.

Brent and Gorson, cited in the NCRP Report, have considered the problem 
(Current Problems in Radiology  II (5):1, 1972) and you may wish to 
consult this for further guidance.  In any event, this is where I would 
start.

Ron Kathren  

On Wed, 12 Jul 1995, John Goldsmith wrote:

> 	A graduate student ( a nurse in our hospital ) has
> asked me some questions with which radsafers may be able to help.
> Given that nurses caring for patients getting radiotherapy with 137Cs,
> routinely wear film badges, is there any circumstance in which 
> radiation exposure could occur which would justify therapeutic abortion?
> 			John Goldsmith <gjohn@bgumail.bgu.ac.il>
>