Re: Contamination from I-131 in Perspiration

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

        Ben,

        I'll replay to "radsafe" in hope that this might be of interest to
others.  If it's not than I apologize ahead of time...

        Some years ago when I was working for a large university (unnamed of
course), we had an individual with a hand dermal problem become quite
contaminated with radioiodine while cleaning up some equipment (even though
it was "bound").  Utilizing in-vivo measurements and Reg guide 8.2, I came
up with a value of approximately .9 uCi for her initial thyroid uptake.  Not
a lot compared to therapeutic doses, but when you're used to looking for nCi
amounts in iodinating researchers - this seemed like quite a bit!

        After the initial determination of uptake, I measured her thyroid
activity every day (sometimes twice daily) and plotted the rate of decay to
check against "theoretical" calculations.  Alas and a lack, my smooth
radiological/biological decay curve suddenly started to develop some pretty
big spikes on the A.M. checks (around day 5).  Of course I made VERY SURE
that she was not in ANY possible additional contact with any radioiodine by
carefully surveying her office etc.(she was not permitted back into the lab
until "much" later).  Sure enough (after some thought), I had her bring in
her pillow cases and sheets and they were quite "toasty". She herself was
too contaminated to borrow a meter and scintillation probe and check
herself.  Additionally, I literally had to send her out of the area (very
politely of course) to check her office and her co-worker's thyroids.

        A.M. checks of her thyroid were showing an increase in thyroid
counts because she was reabsorbing radioiodine from her bedding.  The P.M.
check showed a "normal" decrease/decay curve as minimal re-absorption
could/would occur.

        After we found the cause of the "spikes" she started changing her
bedding every night (and stopped wearing a nightgown [pretty "racy" for
radsafe]) and the spikes disappeared.


        Hope this helps,


        Joel



..

At 09:39 AM 8/5/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Have you had any contamination problems due to perspiration from
>individuals who have received therapeutic doses of I-131?
>
>If so:
>
>1) How did you deal with it?
>
>2) Do you have any data on how much I-131 remained in the body when this
>type of contamination was no longer a problem?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Ben Morgan
>ben.morgan@cplc.com
>
>
Joel T. Baumbaugh (baumbaug@nosc.mil)
Naval Research and Development (NRaD)
San Diego, CA., U.S.A.

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(the U.S. Navy), the Federal government or my supervisors.