nuclear-news

Radioactive patients a hazard to homes and hotels

A New Policy on Radioactive Hotel Guests – NYTimes.com, February 15, 2011, By MATTHEW L. WALD A drawn-out fight over the guidelines for thyroid patients who are given radioactive drugs has taken a new turn, with a decision by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission urging them not to stay in hotels after receiving treatments.
Patients who are given radioactive iodine used to be quarantined in a hospital so they would not irradiate others. Over the the years, however, as more medical procedures have shifted to settings other than hospitals, thyroid treatments did as well. Many of the doctors who give such treatments work in places that have no quarantine facilities or other places for housing patients overnight.

Under Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules, patients are supposed to be told to follow certain precautions, like staying away from other people, especially children and pregnant women. But patients who live in a household with children or pregnant women, or who travel hundreds of miles from treatment, sometimes stay in hotels, and safety advocates said that in those settings, hotel workers – including pregnant workers – could be repeatedly exposed.

On Monday, the commission issued new guidance to doctors that hotel stays were “strongly discouraged.” It said it was responding to “continuing concerns.”

A New Policy on Radioactive Hotel Guests – NYTimes.com

February 17, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, USA