Re: A question of ethics

[bflood@SLAC.Stanford.EDU (Bob Flood)]

My experience in the nuclear power arena indicates that many and perhaps
most doctors do not inform their patients about the use of radioactive
material and radiation for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. Each of the
nuclear plants I worked with had an array of portal monitors through which
everyone had to pass when entering and leaving the site. The majority of
confirmable alarms on these devices were caused by persons ENTERING the
site, not leaving, and the origin of the radioactivity was medical. My
personal estimate is that, in at least half of those cases, the person was
unaware of the use of radioactive material at all. Many questioned their
physicians about it, and most received minimal or no information. I never
tried to estimate a patient dose for a worker, but I have explained what
materials are used and why to quite a few when they couldn't get answers
from their own doctors.

I agree with the replies on this subject that most people won't understand
the details of nuclear medicine, but those who have the interest and
intellectual curiosity to ask for information about the techniques deserve
reasonable answers. I believe the medical community would be wasting a lot
of time and potentially creating distrust and confusion if dosimeteric
information was given to every exposed patient, but that same medical
community should be prepared to given intelligent, understandable
explanations to those who ask.

Bob Flood
Unless otherwise noted, all opinions are mine alone.
(415) 926-3793
bflood@slac.stanford.edu