re: deceased patients who had Sr-89 therapy

["Ronald Frick" <RFRICK@gammacorp.com>]

The 1994 information notice, NRC INFORMATION NOTICE NO. 94-70:  ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH USE OF STRONTIUM-89 AND OTHER BETA EMITTING RADIOPHARMACEUTICALS, discusses doses to the hands from contact with contaminated body fluids during autopsy.  The reader is referred to NCRP 37, Precautions in the Management of Patients Who Have Received Therapeutic Amounts of Radionuclides, for further guidance, although it does not specifically address Sr-89.   It also gives the results of a study performed by The National Radiological Protection Board in the United Kingdom on the impact of cremating corpses of people who have received treatment with Sr-89.  The notice is available on the NRC website:

http://www.nrc.gov/NRC/GENACT/GC/index.html

Ron Frick
Gamma Corporation

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