RE: I-131 Therapy & Contamination

["Muldoon, Patrick" <patrick.muldoon@med.va.gov>]

	We've tried washing down our sinks with cold iodine solution
(both KI and
	Betadine), and were not too impressed (we have porcelain sinks
however, and
	they are quite porous).

	I was afraid that it might not work so well.

	Instead, we line our sinks with 4 or 6 mil vinyl (visquane).  We
cut a hole
	at the bottom a little larger than the drain, securely tape the
plastic to
	the bottom of the sink and the drain, and punch small holes in
the tape
	(lining up with the holes in the metal strainer covering the
drain).  With
	this method, we usually see contamination only on the metal
stainer for the
	drain and in the drain itself.

	This is pretty much what we do now.  Two places on the metal
faucet have been contaminated at times where the patient spits
toothpaste on the faucet by mistake and it leaches past our covering and
on the end where the patient drank from the faucet without a cup.  Both
these spots were very hard to clean.  Of course, there was also the time
we had the athletic patient who did pull-ups on the shower curtain pole
and contaminated the top of the pole.  Almost didn't find that one :-).

	Patrick S. Muldoon, CHP
	VA Medical Center, San Francisco