RE: NRC's Patient Release Rule

["David Whitfill/Kdhe" <DWhitfil@kdhe.state.ks.us>]

I have found this exchange interesting. Some of the opinions expressed have
come across as a little arrogant as one outside looking in. I know from
working with and talking to nuclear medicine techs that they have certainly
had to clean up their fair share of messes, but a whole new dimension is
added when you respond to an office setting after someone has hurled their
iodine treatment all over the office, themselves, and anyone else within
six feet. And try explaining to the janitorial staff why all of a sudden
this area they mopped up is now roped off with no entry posted and the
trash can they used to dump the material now is in a yellow bag with a rad
sticker on it (of course along with their shoes, mop, and bucket). Of
course everything past the hurling part happened only because the person
said something about having an iodine treatment. I have often wondered in
these circumstances exactly how the right to know laws apply...





steve.rima@DOEGJPO.COM (Steven Rima)@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu on 10/28/99
12:42:17 PM

Please respond to radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu

Sent by:  radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu


To:   Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
cc:

Subject:  RE: NRC's Patient Release Rule


     As a non-medical health physicist, I've found the exchange of ideas,
     accusations, etc. regarding this subject to be interesting and very
     enlighting. As a few others have stated, I am a little uneasy with
     hospitals releasing patients to the public with tens to hundreds of
     mCi of I-131 in them, but maybe part of that is due to my background
     in nuclear power and the DOE complex. My company would be fined, at
     the very least, if we allowed a member of the public to receive 500
     mrem from our activities, yet it is allowed in the medical world.
     Maybe someone can explain why such a double standard exists.

     I especially found the information from Peter Crane and Carol Marcus
     quite interesting, however, we also found out from Carol that the NRC
     is "dumb", "incompetent", "sleaze", "dangerously stupid", "useless",
     "dangerous", and that the NRC "Commissioners have no idea what's going
     on".

     While I have my own opinions as to certain regulatory personnel's
     competence, I would hope that we would not paint any agency with such
     a broad brush nor make such statements via RADSAFE.

     Steven D. Rima, CHP, CSP
     Manager, Health Physics and Industrial Hygiene
     MACTEC-ERS, LLC
     steven.rima@doegjpo.com
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