Re: Contamination At POTW

[Franz Schoenhofer <schoenho@via.at>]

At 10:16 09.11.1998 -0600, you wrote:
>It just so happens I have an article on that right in front of me.
>The article is by Frank Clifford (Times Environmental Writer) from June 
>of 1994.
>
>Apparently the GAO found 14 Municipal sewer systems nationwide with 
>contamination. It states that in 5 cases there was enough activity in 
>the sludge to give someone 100 millirems in a year. 
>
>I can fax it to you if you would like.
>
>regards Andrew
>
>
>Hi,

I would appreciate to receive the article. Sewer systems, especially in
bigger cities are  a l w a y s  contaminated by radionuclides used in
nuclear medicine. This is due to the radionuclides used in diagnostics and
excreted by the patients at home.

I remember the boring times before Chernobyl, when we hardly could find any
peaks in the spectra of environmental samples and I remember the excitement
after I sampled the effluents of the Viennese sewage treatment plant for
the firsrt timwe and we watched the peaks of I-131, Tc-99m etc rising fast
on our MCA. 

Regards,

Franz
Franz Schoenhofer
Habicherg. 31/7
A-1160 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43-1-495 53 08
Fax.: same number
mobile phone: +43-664-338 0 333
e-mail: schoenho@via.at

Office:
Federal Institute for Food Control and Research
Department of Radiochemistry
Kinderspitalg. 15
A-1095 Vienna
Austria
Tel.: +43-1-40 491 520
Fax.: +43-1-40 491 540
e-mail: schoenhofer@baluf.via.at
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html