Re: X-rays or Strip Search? -Reply

[Kathleen Kaufman <KKAUFMAN@dhs.co.la.ca.us>]

You may be confusing two different procedures. There has been some
discussion of a unit that scans people,  & that involves a low microrem
dose. What Mr. Huegsen was referring to was Customs offering
suspect individuals an option of receiving a medical x-ray. A typical
abdomen (one view) skin entrance dose is on the order of 300 millirem.
Even Colorado doesn't have that high a daily dose! Many states have
regulations that say that x-ray can only be administered to humans for
medical or research purposes, & that technologists can only perform
such procedures on the order of a licentiate. In those states, I believe Mr.
Huegsen is correct; that Customs cannot legally order him to take an
x-ray.
kkaufman@dhs.co.la.ca.us

>>> Ron Morgan <rgmorgan@lanl.gov> 12/09/98 12:20pm >>>
Some perspective, perhaps.

The machine in question delivers roughly two orders of magnitude less
dose
to an individual (per scan) than that individual will receive this day, and
every day, from background radiation.  The individual volunteers to
receive
that dose, rather than to undergo a strip search.  Am I to understand that
the operators of that machine may be in an ethical quandary?  I wouldn't
think so.

My own ethics require a 'test of reasonableness,' amoung other things,
REGARDLESS of whether the activity is legal or not.  If the situation does
not pass the test, the activity is abandoned.  This activity passed the
test as soon as dose rate numbers with large negative exponents
appeared.

In this instance, the subject would have to receive roughly 100 scans
EVERY
DAY in order to double his annual dose, which he could do more simply
by
getting out of prison and moving to Colorado (speaking STRICTLY in the
abstract, Colorado fans).  Even lacking 'volunteer' status would make no
difference wrt my 'reasonableness' test.  Frankly, this is so far into the
grass at the bottom of the background spectra that I'm astonished that
we're discussing it, other than as an oddity of the profession.

If anyone truly believes that a detriment will be realized from this
machine (operating correctly), which will balance even the amount of
time/effort that RADSAFERs have spent talking about it to date, please let
that person step forward with some justifying assumptions.      ron

James Huesgen wrote, in part:
>As a health care professional I cannot ethically (and in many states
legally)
>perform the exam without an order by a Physician.  

                            
*********************************************
   Ron Morgan
   Radiation Protection Services (ESH-12)
   Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS K-483
   Los Alamos, New Mexico, 87544 (USA)
   Phone (505) 665-7843
   FAX   (505) 667-9726
   Mailto:rgmorgan@lanl.gov
*********************************************
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