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Re: Patient Release - A Related Question
This is from the NRC's 10 CFR Part 20 Training Manual (Rev 0793), page
20.1301-11:
"The 0.5 rem per year limit is available only upon specific application to
and approval by the Commission. A 0.5 rem value has been retained in order
to apply to transient situations and to alleviate the immediate need to
redesign or reshield existing facilities that were designed to meet the
former 0.5 rem limit. The 0.5 rem limit is intended to be applied primarily
to temporary situations where operation of a facility, or the person's
exposure to radiation and radioactive emissions, is not expected to result
in doses above 0.1 rem over long periods of time. For design of new
installations, the 0.1 rem limit should be used. However, existing
facilities may apply for NRC approval to use the 0.5 rem limit while more
complete evaluation of the need for any additional modifications is
performed. Such facilities may include, for example, hospitals with
existing teletherapy machines that were designed, constructed, and
installed to comply with a 0.5 rem annual dose limit."
"James Reese" <james.reese@worldnet.att.net>@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu on
10/29/99 09:15:25 AM
Please respond to radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
Sent by: radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
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Subject: 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
>
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