RAI and radiation monitors

[Guest guest]

OK, what follows is something I was sent late yesterday. I also heard

this on the news (CBS, hourly radio) but they made it sound like drs.

will be writing letters for any patients who had radiation treatments.

AFAIK, aren't radiation treatments and RAI not exactly the same? I don't

remember my mother having to flush twice, etc. after she had radiation

for cancer.

Take care, Fay

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Irradiated Patients Set Off Anti-Terrorism Devices

Wednesday, December 04, 2002

CHICAGO — Patients treated with radioactive materials may be setting

off anti-terrorism devices installed in public places, according to a

medical journal letter detailing a case that occurred in the New York

subway.

The case involved a 34-year-old man with a thyroid condition who was

being treated with radioactive iodine.

Three weeks after treatment, he complained to his doctors that he'd

been strip-searched twice at Manhattan subway stations.

" Police had identified him as emitting radiation and had detained him

for further questioning, " according to the letter in Wednesday's

Journal of the American Medical Association.

" He returned to the clinic and requested a letter stating that he had

recently been treated with radioactive iodine, " said the letter from

Drs. Christoph Buettner and Surks of Albert Einstein College of

Medicine.

The experience suggests that radiation detection devices are being

installed in public places in New York and perhaps elsewhere and that

patients should be informed of the potential problem, the doctors said.

They said they called New York's terrorism task force for advice and

were told that doctors should give patients letters describing the

isotope used, its dose and date of treatment. Such letters should also

include doctors' phone numbers to allow police to verify the

information, the physicians said they were told.

" Even in the best-case scenerio, however, the patient would have to

wait during this verification process, " the doctors said.

Patients may choose to avoid public transportation to escape the

problem, the doctors said.

Tom , a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in

New York City, said he knew nothing of the man's case or the journal

letter.

Radioactive materials have a variety of medical uses, including cancer

treatment and diagnostic imaging tests. In the case detailed in JAMA,

it was used to treat Graves' disease, an autoimmune disorder that

causes excessive production of thyroid hormones.

Former President Bush was treated for the condition with radioactive

iodine in 1991.

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