Re: P-32 and Skin Burns

["baumbaug@nosc.mil" <baumbaug@nosc.mil>]

        Sue,

        I'll reply to the whole list, simply because this is an unusual 
case and I "HOPE" of general interest.

        I personally know a PHD researcher, at a university I worked at 
previously, who told me that he received hand/finger and RETINAL burns
using multi-10's (or more?) of millicuri-amounts of P-32/experiment while 
performing labeling experiments in his native country of India as a graduate
student.  Sounds like another story of a graduate student used as REM-fodder.

        Joel


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At 11:05 AM 3/6/97 -0600, you wrote:
>Good morning: 
>
>This morning I encountered a faculty member who, mostly good-
>naturedly, has a soapbox he likes to pound about mindless radiation 
>bureaucrats.  During his usual speech, he said there's no isotope use
>here on campus that can cause any harm to anyone (he's a H-3 user 
>but he specifically referred to the P-32 users - and he wasn't 
>interested in cancer risk).  I said, well, no, some researchers do 
>use enough P-32 to cause skin burns under the wrong circumstances 
>and that I could imagine scenarios involving millicurie users of P-32 
>getting a microcurie droplet of P-32 on the skin, not surveying, and 
>ending up with a skin burn.  
>
>Although this scenario is an easy one to imagine, it must be really very 
>rare in occurrence because, as best as I can remember, I've never heard 
>anyone anywhere describe such an incident.  So my question: do any 
>of you have knowledge, personal or anecdotal, of incidents resulting 
>in P-32-induced skin burns?  Feel free to respond to me personally at 
>dupre@princeton.edu - I'd be glad to summarize (without referring to 
>specific institutions) the responses I get.  Thanks for satisfying my 
>curiosity!
>
>Sue M. Dupre, Health Physicist
>
>Office of Occupational Health and Safety
>Chemical Sciences Building/Forrestal Campus
>Princeton University
>Princeton, NJ  08544-0710
>
>E-mail: dupre@arundel.princeton.edu
>Phone:  (609) 258-6252
>Fax:    (609) 258-1804
>
>
Joel T. Baumbaugh (baumbaug@nosc.mil)
Naval Research and Development (NRaD)
San Diego, CA., U.S.A.