RESPONSE: QUESTION REGARDING RADIOIODINE CROSS CONTAMINATION

["Liaboe,Terry" <Terry.Liaboe@add.ssw.abbott.com>]

I agree, it does sound like we are creating a lot of extra work for
ourselves, and I have asked the same question to our service people who
perform this activity.  They are of the opinion that it is more efficient for
them from a time and effort point to run the items together and check for
contamination on the back end.  As I stated the glass decons nicely so they
say it is relatively easy to survey and release them.  What remains on the
plastic carboys is generally fixed so the plastic items are just assumed to
be contaminated after washing and are returned for use again holding
radioactive solutions.  One other reason they have given is that because
manufacturing runs 24 hours a day they cannot afford to segregate and wait to
fill a washer because of turnaround demands and the need to keep the washers
running full to keep up with the volume coming in.

Probably not the best of reasons, but in the real world, production sometimes
takes priority over what we think are good health physics practices!

Terry Liaboe
Abbott Laboratories
e-mail:  Terry.Liaboe@add.ssw.abbott.com








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