insane radioactivity in the nuclear medicine operating room

tiny, radioactive iridium 192 seeds. 10 Curie. 370.000.000.000 atoms decaying every second. and i left my gamma scout with that intense radiation... making an interesting documentary about the levels of ionizing radiation in brachytherapy (to be precise: prostate cancer afterloading).

Category:

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[THEOLDDEL]

Was that 3 full Sieverts?!? Are you curing him or sealing his Doom? 6 full Sieverts = 'Death Expected' according to a scale I read.

[bionerd23]

@THEOLDDEL

that only goes for a FULL BODY DOSE of 6 sieverts. for example, 6 Sv on your HANDS would hardly produce anything, not even a "sunburn". 6 Sv on your brain, though, and you're in serious trouble. so, you see, this is how it's done - by just admitting high doses into a tumor while making sure the vital rest of the body does not receive too much of a dose.

[truthIsStranger]

@bionerd23

This is a fascinating and frightening video for me. I never trusted this medicine, I do expect it to be regarded one day as we do the lobotomy. But if the scout was in the other corner of the room, how can we say the exposure of these levels was only to his prostate gland?

I know you understand better than I do but would like to know, is he being shielded from the radiation in that room? It's not like you held the unit between his legs. =P

[bionerd23]

@truthIsStranger

a fatal dose was only transmitted to the prostate, as the radionuclide used for this is largely a beta-emitter. the rest of his body received a significant radiation dose, too, with the area near his prostate (e.g. rectum) receiving damaging doses that are not fatal and are repaired within time. however, mild radiation sickness syndromes (fatigue, bleeding from rectum, pain that is managable with painkillers) can be expected from this treatment, but lasts for just a few days.

[crottc]

really cool looking machine!

[IonactiveConsulting]

People - you should be talking in Gy not Sv ;)

[gardnerbm]

what if the machine gets stuck "on" do you bet on who is going to go out there to fix it?

[aeopmusic]

According to the IAEA, 50 mSv is the average exposure for humans per year.

[Rannyfash]

you are amazing

[ytube153]

This of course wasn't 3 full Sieverts. 3000 µSv as seen in the video is 3 mS (3 x 10^-3 Sv) which means 3 thousands of a Sievert.

The average dosage a person accumulates in a year through natural radiation is between 2 and 4 mSv.

Dosages lethal for humans are much higher, between 5 and 10 Sieverts.

[ytube153]

@truthIsStranger

If Brachytherapy is administered to a prostate cancer patient, the disease is most likely so far advanced that what you call "this medicine" will most likely be his only hope. Here you are trying to help a fatally ill person who otherwise would die.

Lobotomy is regarded as one of the worst mistakes known in medical history. Its purpose was to silence people who were considered mentally abnormal - comparing the two is just absurd.

[ytube153]

@THEOLDDEL

This of course wasn't 3 full Sieverts. 3000 µSv as seen in the video is 3 mS (3 x 10^-3 Sv) which means 3 thousands of a Sievert.

The average dosage a person accumulates in a year through natural radiation is between 2 and 4 mSv.

Dosages lethal for humans are much higher, between 5 and 10 Sieverts.

[Tekknorg]

ONE radiograph during pregnancy: 20 % increase for cancer probability before the child is 10 years old. Two radiographs during pregnancy: 28 %. Three: 70 %. FOUR:…. 100 PERCENT. There is NO SAFE LEVEL OF RADIATION EXPOSURE: from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Sept. 1978 - by K.Z, Morgan - former ICRP president.

[Tekknorg]

Screening procedures are employed to look periodically at symptom-free people in certain categories for some undetected disease: screening women over age 40 or 50 for breast cancer, or adults past a certain age for colon cancer, or men past age 50 for prostate cancer, or smokers and former smokers for lung cancer. Screening is the systematic testing of asymptomatic individuals for pre-clinical disease," states Robert J. Stanley, radiologist and past president of the American Roentgen Ray Society