Re: Release of I-131 Patients

[Thomas Gray & Associates <tga@95net.com>]

Steven Rima wrote:
> 
>      I too have had the fun of looking into a couple of sanitary landfill
>      alarms. I don't believe that we can lay this problem at the feet of
>      the NRC or any other regulatory agency, at least in most cases. Where
>      I've looked into alarms at landfills, the alarm setpoint was
>      arbitrarily set by the landfill (or the company that installed their
>      detection system), and not by any regulatory requirements. I've seen
>      the same thing at scrap metal yards. How many states have regulations
>      that even require such monitors, let alone mandate the alarm setpoint?
> 
>      No matter what the limits are, there will always be those who will
>      want their landfills to admit "no radioactive material", along with
>      the companies making and installing such instruments. I don't see this
>      particular problem going away no matter what contamination limits are
>      set by NRC. I see it getting worse as instrument manufacturers make
>      even more sensitive instruments that they push landfills to buy.
> 
>      Steven D. Rima, CHP, CSP
>      Manager, Health Physics and Industrial Hygiene
>      MACTEC-ERS, LLC
>      steven.rima@doegjpo.com
> 
> ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
>      <snip>
> 
>      Carol Marcus wrote:
> 
> 
> Dear Mark and Radsafers:
> 
> The problem was not the patient who was released.  The problem is NRC's
> nonsensical requirements at power plants.  Fix those.
> 
> We had a related incident in Los Angeles at a sanitary landfill that had
> installed highly sensitive NaI(Tl) detectors.  We were picking up diapers
> and other remnants of nuclear medicine procedures.  One day Rad Health spent
> hours trying to locate the radioactive trash in a truck, and it turned out
> that the driver had had an NaI-123 thyroid scan and when he drove the truck
> past the detectors, he set them off. We fixed the problem.  We measured all
> trash with nuclear medicine contamination, and set the baseline of the
> detector at 10x background and stopped "discovering" this problem.  All was
> fine for years until a different agency took over, set the meter at 3x
> background, and this "problem" occurred again.
> 
> The problem is not the patients.  It is foolish regulators who set limits
> that are irrational, and cause all sorts of silly "problems" as a result.
> Today, we have portable spectrometers and can even relay spectrometry
> information to anyone with an identification program.  We could solve this
> "problem" with state-of-the-art technology and good scientific sense.
> Hello?  NRC?  Is anyone home?  Is this going to be the basis for the new
> solid waste regs, or is it going to be another negotiated settlement with
> antinuke hysterical liars?
> 
> Ciao, Carol
> 
> Carol S. Marcus, Ph.D., M.D.
> <csmarcus@ucla.edu>
> 
> ************************************************************************
> 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
Steve-
I don't think that scrap yards and landfills are setting their monitors
at very sensitive settings to push an agenda or at the suggestion of
instrument manufacturers trying to sell more instruments. Our company
(Thomas Gray and Associates) is called on a monthly basis from some
unfortunate landfill or scrapyard operator who didn't have his meter set
low enough (or didn't have a meter at all) and is now forced to take
responsibility (financial and legal) for someone who dropped off a
general licensed gage or other misplaced radioactive material and called
it scrap or trash. We have found radium sources under the driver's seats
of junked autos, numerous gamma sources comingled with scrap metal of
all types, and i could go on and on but i think you get the point. I do
know that if it was my scrapyard/landfill i would set my meter at the
lowest setting possible and ask questions later.

Rich Gallego
Thomas Gray and Associates, Inc.
************************************************************************
The RADSAFE Frequently Asked Questions list, archives and subscription
information can be accessed at http://www.ehs.uiuc.edu/~rad/radsafe.html