Re: Workers Family Protection Act Info*

[mozley@darius.pet.upenn.edu (P. David Mozley)]

"Jim Johnson . . . is in the process of evaluating how significant exposure
to family members can be from toxic materials brought home by workers. . .
This in
turn will lead to an assessment as to how significant this route of exposure
is."
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Perhaps his report should explicitly rule out significant exposure to
members of the household from professionals who work in conventional
nuclear medicine facilities.

While it is theoretically possible to track home some spilled radioactivity
on shoes, routine monitoring practices which are already in place should
essentially negate any chance of even trivial exposure at home, since shoes
are always confiscated in such circumstances.  Daily safety practice tends
to insure that the same holds for spills on the hands, clothing, etc.  It
is theoretically possible for sublimated I-131 to be incorporated into the
thyroid and "brought home".  But, the already routine use of encapsulated
forms minimizes this risk.

On the other hand, the risk may be more meaningful in research laboratories
that use liquid forms of I-131 and I-125.  However, the risk to people in
the environment still seems very low.  Carol Marcus recently posted a
theoretical calculation of the maximum dose possible to a human contact
from a cat treated with I-131 that should be valid for the purposes of this
report.  The Ma affair at NIH this past summer also demonstrated that
research laboratory personell can inadvertantly become contaminated with
internal P-32.  While the theoretical exposure to the outside public was
not discussed, I'm willing to bet the risks would be negligible even in a
worst case senario.

In synopsis, it may be important to carefully define and segregate the
different occupations that come in contact with RAM.  Professional who work
in conventional clinical settings do not seem to constitute a risk of
radiation exposure to people in their households.

mozley@darius.pet.upenn.edu