nuclear-news

Radiation therapy can increase cancer risks to community

Scientists say a second-hand dose could exceed an average American’s annual level from all natural sources, and can be three or four times the safe level recommended for a pregnant woman.

Second-hand’ danger in radiation therapy?  UPI.com,   NEW YORK, Oct. 25 — Thyroid cancer patients given radiation can be dangerous to people around them for a week, doctors say, raising questions of where they should spend that time.

In 1997, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission stopped requiring that the patients be quarantined in a hospital.

Now, patients can be released right after their treatment — swallowing radioactive iodine — when they are at their most radioactive, The New York Times reported Sunday.

Scientists say a second-hand dose could exceed an average American’s annual level from all natural sources, and can be three or four times the safe level recommended for a pregnant woman.

‘Second-hand’ danger in radiation therapy? – UPI.com

October 26, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, radiation, radioactive