🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Sep9.225426.20316@hsv3.lsil.com> mvp@hsv3.lsil.com (Mike Van Pelt) writes:

>An old high-school friend of mine went to work at a nuclear plant after
>he got out of the Navy, and he had a story or two to tell about I131
>treatments.  Like the time they had to cordon off the Port-A-Pottie
>with radiation hazard signs and guards because someone had their
>thyroid done, came to the site, and used their john.  And how they
>trace the plume of I131 downstream from the sewage treatment plant
>whenever anyone in the city gets a thyroid treatment.

Radionuclides used in patient therapy such as iodine-131, are 
non-regulated in that the material that leaves the patient via excreta
is non-regulted.  In other words, the hospital simply is not required to
track the material as it leaves the patient.  When I was going to school
(which was directly accross the street from both a Burger King and a
major hospital) one of my profs said that if you _really_ want to get
your daily radiation dose, just go to the Burger King for lunch.  You
can track the iodine all over the place (mostly on door handles).  It
comes right out as sweat and sticks to whatever the patient touches
after they leave the hospital.  (Many out patients go to the Burger King
after their treatment. )

As far as traces in sewers go, it's really easy to find.  We do the same
thing where I work.  When we get a spike on the monitor, ten to one it's
someone peeing after getting an injection of iodine.
 

-- 
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Gary L. Schroeder  		|  
schroede@bnlux1.bnl.gov         |             Boo. 
Brookhaven National Laboratory  |