[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Patient Release - A Related Question
Correct me if I am wrong, but does not 10 CFR 20.1301(c) provide licensees
(including reactor licensees) to raise their annual exposure limit for
members of the public to 500 mrem? This would seem to indicate to me that
there is some consistency in the 500 mrem limit.
Only spouting off my thoughts
James H. Reese
Health Physicist
(916) 689-2680 tel.
(916) 689-6270 fax
james.reese@worldnet.att.net
----- Original Message -----
From: Tonry, Louie L MAJ <Louie.Tonry@se.amedd.army.mil>
To: Multiple recipients of list <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu>
Sent: October 29, 1999 6:49 AM
Subject: RE: Patient Release - A Related Question
> The 500 mrem is not to any member of the general public, it is to a select
> member of the public, namely the family member. At least this is the
> intent.
>
> When the patient is released, they are given specific instuctions on where
> they can go, how to minimize doses to those around them, etc.
>
> As far as the contamination, realistically, the potential dose from uptake
> of their contamination is minimal. I think it is routinely agreed that we
> have the contamination levels not because they are necessary for dose
> minimization but rather because we can and therefore it's ALARA.
>
> Louie Tonry, CHP
> Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Ft. Gordon, GA
> louie.tonry@se.amedd.army.mil
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: steve.rima@DOEGJPO.COM [mailto:steve.rima@DOEGJPO.COM]
> Sent: Thursday, October 28, 1999 3:13 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: Patient Release - A Related Question
>
>
> RADSAFERs,
>
> In my last post on this topic, I asked a question that has bugged me
> for quite a while. Maybe someone out there can attempt to answer it.
>
> Most NRC and Agreement State licensees are subject to the 100 mrem/y
> limit for members of the public from their activities. In addition,
> there are some pretty strict public information requirements for many
> licensees, especially nuclear power plants, whereby they have to
> provide information on the calculated _theoretical_ dose, and the
> measured dose, that their plant is giving local residents. DOE sites
> have similar requirements. There are also _very_ strict limits on how
> much surface contamination is allowed to be released to the public on
> material released from their sites.
>
> Medical licensees, on the other hand, can now release a patient to
the
> public so long as the _calculated_ dose to a member of the public is
> less than 500 mrem, and there is obviously no way to ever measure or
> confirm whether this was exceeded. There is also no requirement, nor
> attempts I've heard of, from hospitals to alert the local public that
> they may be randomly exposed to up to 500 mrem from their patients.
We
> also know that a person with tens to hundreds of I-131 will
> contaminate everything they touch, usually to a level above what is
> releasable from other licensees, with no monitoring or public notice
> required.
>
> QUESTION: Why is there/should there be such a double standard???
I-131
> is I-131, whether from a hospital or power plant, and a mrem is a
> mrem, no matter the source, so why can hospitals do things that would
> get other licensees cited, fined, or even shut down? An argument can
> be made that residents near a power plant benefit from its operation,
> but I don't believe that the random member of the public exposed to a
> radioactive patient receives any benefit whatsoever.
>
> I'm NOT addressing patient care issues here. Dr. Marcus asserts that
> the NRC should stay completely out of that arena, and I totally agree
> with her on that point. However, this question has absolutely nothing
> to do with patient care and everything to do with consistency, or the
> lack thereof, in regulations regarding public dose limits and
> notification.
>
> Anybody care to take a stab at an answer to this?
>
> Steven D. Rima, CHP, CSP
> Manager, Health Physics and Industrial Hygiene
> MACTEC-ERS, LLC
> steven.rima@doegjpo.com
>
> ************************************************************************
> The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
> information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html
> ************************************************************************
> The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
> information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html