Re: "Radon Capsule"

[William V Lipton <liptonw@dteenergy.com>]

I appreciate your comments on the tendency to ignore the long lived progeny in
these radon seeds.  This brings to mind the misuse of "spent" radon seeds.  This
information is from my notes of a phone conversation, in 1981, with Jenine
Lewis, of the Bureau of Radiological Health. The seeds were  made of gold, and
the practice of implanting them for cancer therapy began in 1929.  They had a
medically useful life of approximately 4 days. Hospitals tended to over-order
them, since they were inexpensive (approximtately 3 - 4 cents each), and were
thus left with "spent" seeds.  These were supposed to be returned to the
supplier.  As might be expected, some enterprising individuals thought it
worthwhile to sell the seeds for the value of the gold, not realizing (or
despite realizing) the buildup of Pb-210 and progency.  This gold entered the
jewelry market.  In the late 1960's, there were reports of dermatitis from
contact with gold rings.  This was found to be caused by  the radioactive
material in the gold.  The problem seems to have been confined to the Buffalo,
NY area.  Between 1960 and 1980, 10 such rings were found by the NY Dept. of
Public Health.  The gold was generally used as the extra gold needed to resize
rings.  This received media attention in 1981, when 2 more cases were discovered
in the Buffalo, NY area.  The NY Dept. of  Public Health set up survey stations
where the public could have jewelry surveyed.  Out of thousands of pieces of
jewelry surveyed, approximately 120 radioactive rings and a few radioactive
class pins were identified.

There has been extensive literature on this, including:

Richard F. Boggs, Gail D. Schmidt, and Kenneth D. Williams, "Radiological Health
Aspects of  Spent Radon Seeds,", "Radiological Health Data and Reports,"
10(5):  185-190, May 1969

Simon, N. and J. Harley, "Skin reactions from gold jewelry contaminated with
radon deposit," "Journal of the AMA," 205: 123-124, August, 1968

"Ring Finger Sore? Check for 'hot' Gold," "Medical World News," Jan. 5, 1981

The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
It's not about dose, it's about trust.

Bill Lipton
liptonw@dteenergy.com


William Lorenzen wrote:

>           My understanding is that Radon was also used in seed form.
>           Patients were told (at least the story I got from one patient)
>           that the Radon has a short half-life so the radiation will be gone
>           shortly, however, the issue of long-lived progeny was never
>           mentioned.
>
>           This was uncovered when we did a whole body count (he was employed
>           by a commercial uranium facility at the time) of the individual
>           20+ year after his treatment had been done when he was a youth.
>           The seed was placed up into his sinus area through the roof of his
>           mouth and left there.
>
>           Check the gamma spec. results.  You may not find any radium...
>
>           Regards,
>
>           William A. Lorenzen
>           Children's Hospital
>           Boston, MA 02115
>
>           lorenzen_w@a1.tch.harvard.edu
>

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