More Tritium Therapy & Beer Drinking

[RadWizard@aol.com]

I second Les and Gene's thoughts and comments, and add the following 
observations:

1.  Although equilibrium is assumed to be almost instantaneous, I believe I 
have seen delays of at least an hour or so in terms of peak concentration in 
the urine in some cases of HTO uptakes.

2.  We had a fairly significant intake of HTO a few years ago, and were able 
to relatively easily increase the worker's fluid intake to get an effective 
half-time of around 3 to 4 days, thereby significantly reducing the dose.  If 
I remember correctly, the worker sustained this increased fluid intake for 
several weeks after the intake.

3.  NOTE:  The increase in fluid intake was done under CAREFUL and on-going 
medical supervision.

4.  We recommended NON-alchoholic fluids (fortunately, the worker was a 
tea-drinker.)  I hate to be paranoid (although I consider that part of my 
job) but can you imagine the liability issues if you or your facility 
recommended that a worker "drink lots of beer" (or ANY beer, for that matter) 
and then the worker drove off and killed somebody or him (or her) self!??  
Our legal counsel would go berserk if they even thought we were thinking 
about doing something like that!   So my recommendation is to stick with the 
non-alchoholic fluids folks.

5.  And, as most of you are probably aware, tritium is excreted in all body 
fluids (sweat, you-name-it) so cross-contamination in the workplace and at 
home can be an issue that needs to be considered in the case of significant 
uptakes.  

And thanks to Gus for reminding everyone of appropriate definitions.

Yours for fewer intakes . . .

RadWizard@aol.com
aka Gary Mansfield
[Facility name withheld to protect the innocent]

Naturally, these are simply my incompetent ravings, and do not reflect the 
opinions of my employer.
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