Re: release of patient based on NRCREG 35.75

[csmarcus <csmarcus@ucla.edu>]

At 09:17 AM 11/25/98 -0600, you wrote:
>In a message dated 98-11-24 21:44:12 EST, csmarcus@ucla.edu writes:
>
><<  It is
> interesting that I have not been able to document a single instance of this
> happening.  I don't mean alarms sounding and I don't mean just I-131.  I
> mean I-131 from patients given over 30 mCi as outpatients.  >>
>
>Generally speaking, the people responding the the landfill alarms (i.e., the
>regulators) do not have the luxury of performing a full investigation.  We
>simply do not have the time and people available to track down where an item
>came from if it comes through in a residential trash load.  This means that we
>may find a diaper, nightgown, or other paper waste (I even once found a
>barrette, with "hot" hair in it), we may be able to identify that it's I-131
>(and, it's only recently that we've been able to purchase the equipment to do
>this in the field), but we still won't know whether or not this was a "less
>than 30 mCi" or "more than 30 mCi" patient.
>
>Barbara L. Hamrick
>BLHamrick@aol.com
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>Dear Barbara:

I can understand WHY you don't have data, but no one can make a claim that
the 500 mrem patient discharge rule is causing more problems unless he/she
has the data to back it up.

In any case, it would be a good idea for regulators to back the recent
position of the HPS in its letter to NRC about the ridiculous proposed Part
35.  HPS recommended that NRC exempt all patient body fluid-contaminated
articles when they hit a sanitary landfill on the basis that it has already
been determined that no one is going to get irradiated above regulatory
limits with this waste.  That is, solve the problem of landfill standards.

The 500 mrem rule makes scientific sense.  By the way, did you know that NRC
has no idea where the "30 mCi" rule came from?

Ciao, Carol

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