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-----Original Message-----
From: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu [mailto:owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu]On Behalf Of Phil Rutherford Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2005 2:20 AM To: Jaro; RADSAFE Subject: Re: question concerning stress tests Exposures from nuclear stress tests can be
considerable, at least to those of us who have to explain and justify every last
millirem to regulators and activists.
Several years ago I had a stress test
and made some post treatment measurements with a Bicron MicroR
meter.
Injections of 30 mCi of Tc-99m and 4
mCi of Tl-201 result in a cumulative dose of ~600 mrem. Seven (7) hours
after treatment, the exposure rate was 17 mR/hr in contact with the stomach and
20 microR/hr (twice background) at 30 feet. Exposure rate at stomach
level after 2 days was ~2 mR/hr, and after 7 days was ~0.5 mR/hr. After 3
weeks, exposure rates were indistinquishable from
background.
Yes, at those levels, a lot of
patients are going to be setting of the increasing number of post 9/11 radiation
monitors in airports, borders, etc.
See http://www.philrutherford.com/Stress_Test_2003.pdf for
charts of exposure vs. distance and time.
Interestingly enough, when I asked the nuclear
technician who administered the radiopharmaceuticals, how much exposure I would
receive, he said "Oh, about the same as a chest X-ray (~10 mrem)." I do
not know whether that was simple ignorance or deliberate
misinformation.
Phil
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