RE:radiopharmaceutical patient release

[stephane_jeanfrancois@Merck.Com (Stephane Jeanfrancois)]

you wrote: Here we go again!  Yes, I would not mind at all sitting next
to someone
who received 150 mCi of I-131 a few hours earlier, even if the seat were
on an airplane and the flight were a 14 hr. flight.  The little exposure
I would get from such a person is not a problem to me, nor should it be
to anyone, even a pregnant woman or a baby.

Al Tschaeche  xat@inel.gov
_________

You are right, we should not be too worry about this issue. But I try,
as much as possible, to think ALARA and if there is a way to educate a
patient to wait for a while after a Thyroid treatment (ablation or
other), I would do it.  I can't  imagine that there is a lot of person
that take a non-stop flight to Australia just after a nuclear medicine
treatment. :-). But then, you know the type of word we are living in,
some people exaggerate (Have you heard about the odor-free company I
don't know where in US?) What about secondary or third smoke ?

I'm only saying here that education can be at least a way to diminish
the impression that low radiation is harmful and that if the person can
report the flight (I would doubt it) I would be the first to tell that
person to do it. .We always have to remember that we are dealing
something with persons that may act only with their hart and not their
reason when they ear about radiation....And of course, some people
simply don't know better... So I guess it's the debate on education all
over again. But we have to be careful when we say "It's OK for me, so
it's OK for you..."

I received once in my office a portal detector dealer (the one you find
in iron scrap yards) that was involving the same argument (a flight 14
hours, sitting near a living source bla, bla, bla) to sell me to the
idea that these detectors would be useful in airports or train stations
etc....  So you see, if you don't educate, you can have a hard time
persuading someone that a 150 mCi treatment will not affect people
around, especially if you show them with a NaI counter the activity
detected...

Stephane Jean-Francois Phys. Eng.
RSO
Merck Frosst Canada
stephane_jeanfrancois@merck.com