I131 & mobile phones

[Chris Alston <alstonc@odrge.odr.georgetown.edu>]

>X-Sender: ivan@pop3-server
>Date:         Mon, 14 Jun 1999 16:28:41 +0100
>Reply-To: Ivan Rosenberg <ivan@MEDPHYS.UCL.AC.UK>
>Sender: Medical Physics Mailing List <medphys@cwis-20.wayne.edu>
>From: Ivan Rosenberg <ivan@MEDPHYS.UCL.AC.UK>
>Subject:      I131 & mobile phones
>To: MEDPHYS@cwis-20.wayne.edu
>
>A clinician has reported to me that, very soon after a patient received an
>800MBq I131 dose for thyroid, a mobile phone belonging to the patient became
>faulty, on the way home. The phone did not pack up completely; the patient
>ran out of credit prematurely for normal calls & could only make emergency
>calls. The phone has not yet been checked for faults.
>
>Does anyone know whether mobile phones are susceptible to damage by such
>ionising radiations, or had similar experience of this kind of thing? I
>believe that infusion pumps (via integrated circuits) are prone to damage
>during external beam (megavoltage photon) TBI treatments, and so we position
>them outside the path of the primary beam.
>
>In these days, with mobile phones ubiquitous, perhaps there will be other
>claims of radiation-induced damage!
>
>Thanks.
>
>
>------------------------------------------------
>Ivan Rosenberg, Ph.D.
>Head of Radiotherapy Physics
>Department of Medical Physics and Bio-Engineering
>The University College Hospitals NHS Trust
>Middlesex Hospital
>Mortimer Street
>London W1N  8AA.
>
>Tel: (+44) 0171 380-9437 (direct)
>Bleep: (+44) 0171 636-8333 (bl: 2259)
>FAX: (+44) 0171 380-9111
>e-mail: ivan@medphys.ucl.ac.uk
>
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