BBC: Therapy 'sets off airport alarms'

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: bobr () bobrosenberg phoenix az us
Date: August 5, 2006 4:50:03 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: BBC: Therapy 'sets off airport alarms'

Dave

Perhaps for IP.

I got particular joy from the irony of this paragraph:  "Patients who  
have received
treatment involving radioactive particles are already advised to  
avoid public
transport for two weeks so that they do not expose nearby passengers to
radioactivity."

Please, someone, tell me how that patient avoids exposing him/her  
self to
radioactivity?!?

Of course, this lunacy is 'protecting' us from ???  Oh yeah, I got it  
--- rationality.

Bob Rosenberg
P.O. Box 33023
Phoenix, AZ  85067-3023
Mobile:  602-206-2856
LandLine:  602-274-3012
bob () bobrosenberg phoenix az us




 BBC NEWS
2006/08/04

Therapy 'sets off airport alarms'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/5243198.stm

Patients having radiation treatments should be warned they may  
falsely trigger
security alarms, say experts.

Their advice follows the case of a patient who set off a US airport  
security alarm
at check-in six weeks after receiving radioiodine therapy.

He was interrogated, strip-searched and finally released, after a  
long delay and
much embarrassment, the British Medical Journal reports.

Each year 10,000 UK people are treated with radioiodine for thyroid  
problems.

Alarming

And increasing numbers of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures,  
including some
lung, heart and bone scans, use radioactive particles.

Given the current political climate, airport authorities are keen to  
detect any
radioactive material being carried by passengers, and have installed  
sensitive
alarms.

Researchers at City Hospital, Birmingham, say that having heard about  
the problems
their 46-year-old patient encountered, they began issuing all  
patients with a
radionuclide card explaining the risk of persisting radioactivity  
following such
treatment and problems this might cause, including the risk of  
radiation alarms
being triggered.

	Airports worldwide are deploying more sensitive radiation detection  
systems and one
would therefore expect more such cases
The study authors

When they searched medical literature they found four similar cases.

In the first report, dated 1986, two patients were detained and later  
released after
trying to enter the White House for a public tour four days after  
exercise testing
with a thallium scan.

In 1988, a patient triggered a bank's security alarm, again because  
of an earlier
thallium scan.

In 2004, a 55-year-old pilot was detained after setting off airport  
radiation
detector alarms while travelling as a crew member to Moscow.

He was released later the same day when it transpired the  
radioactivity detected was
the result of a heart scan he had undergone two days earlier. Experts  
estimate that
some patients might trigger alarms up to 12 weeks after radioactive  
diagnostic and
therapeutic procedures.

Writing in the BMJ, Dr Kalyan Kumar Gangopadhyay and colleagues said:  
"Airports
worldwide are deploying more sensitive radiation detection systems  
and one would
therefore expect more such cases unless we take the responsibility of  
forewarning
our patients."

Practical advice

Dundee University experts Dr Daniel Cuthbertson and Dr John Davidson  
said new
guidelines due on the use of radioiodine for thyroid disease should  
include this
advice.

Patients who have received treatment involving radioactive particles  
are already
advised to avoid public transport for two weeks so that they do not  
expose nearby
passengers to radioactivity.

Patients with young children at home are also advised to avoid  
prolonged daily close
contact - within less than 1 metre - with them for a time dependent  
on the dose of
radioiodine administered.

A spokeswoman from the Royal College of Physicians, the organisation  
that is due to
publish new guidance on radioiodine use for thyroid disease, said:  
"The guidelines
are due for publication in November, so there will be time for this  
new issue to be
considered."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/5243198.stm

Published: 2006/08/04 09:36:56 GMT

© BBC MMVI



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