Re: Contamination from I-131 in Perspiration

["Bass, Billy G." <bgb3@mhg.edu>]

Tough one to do.  Aside from the logistical aspects of bioassay of spouses 
you have the emotional side arising from our public fear of anything 
nuclear.  I believe the results would be highly dependent on the time the 
patient spent in the hospital post ingestion and how well he/she abided by 
the discharge instructions.  I routinely advise our thyroid patients to 
avoid intimacy with spouse and young children for at least one day after 
discharge.  The new NRC release limits may dramatically  change that whole 
scenario.  It will be especially interesting for those individuals who are 
treated as outpatients in light of the new guidelines.  Sorry!  I forgot my 
name after that last reply.

Bill Bass
Washington Hospital Center
 ----------
From: radsafe%romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: Contamination from I-131 in Perspiration
Date: Tuesday, August 05, 1997 11:51PM

Milton E McLain wrote:
>
> On Tue, 5 Aug 97 13:31:31 -0500 "Bass, Billy G." <bgb3@mhg.edu> writes:
> >
> >Ben,  we see considerable contamination in the sweat of I-131
> >patients. "   Etc., etc.
>
> Be aware that thyroid ablation therapy patients may also emit significant
> quantities of I-131 via the  respiratory path.  In the Vet Medicine
> Clinic at Texas A&M we measured air concentrations of I-131 equal to the
> "old" MPC value in a kennel (dimensions: approx. 8 x 20 ft.) where
> treated cats were kept for a time before release to their owners.  The
> ventilation in this kennel space was only modest and the residual urine
> in the cage litter was doubtless a contributor to the airborne I-131 as
> the excreted I was oxidized by the air to volatile elemental, volatile
> iodine.  The total "cat inventory" of I-131 in that TAMU situation was
> estimated to be 25 mCi.
>
> Milton McLain, Professor Emeritus
> mem6@juno.com

The residual urine should have been the primary contributor since
elememtal iodine is released from most acidic aqueous solutions, which
is why many radiochemical facilities keep their hot drain system sumps
on the alkaline side of the pH scale.

It would be interesting to know what was the actual fraction from each
pathway.  It would also be interesting to do a study on iodine uptake by
spouses of patients treated with I-131.

Andrew Tompkins
ATL International, Inc.
Albuquerque, NM    87111


e-mail: jatalbq@ix.netcom.com