Radioactive Treatments Can Trigger Airport Security...Even Weeks After Treatment
A man who had received radioactive iodine (RAI) treatment for recurrent hyperthyroidism set off Orlando, Florida airport security alarms, and ended up being detained, strip searched and extensively interrogated -- six weeks after his RAI treatment. The 46 year old British thyroid patient was not warned by his physicians that he might set off the radiation detectors. The incident was reported in a recent issue of the British Medical Journal. According to the study's author Kalyan Gangopadhyay, "Such procedures make patients temporarily radioactive and can be an important cause of false alarms at airports by activating radiation detectors.... Doctors show a worrying lack of awareness about such potential problems. As a result, patients receiving radioactive isotopes for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes are not adequately warned about persisting radioactivity and precautions that need to be taken."
While patients are supposed to receive a card explaining that they've had a radioactive procedure, it's not clear if all patients are receiving these cards, or if they are being counseled regarding the security issues at borders and airports. The study authors are now providing their patients with a revised card that reads: "Airport alarms may be triggered for up to 12 weeks after receiving your therapy dose."
What is particularly unfortunate about the inconvenience and embarrassment of these situations is that it appears that physicians are not regularly informing patients of the security concerns related to RAI treatment, despite the fact that it's been known for almost 4 years this can be a risk. And the issue applies not only to patients receiving RAI. Anyone having certain PET scans, bone scans, cardiac exams with thallium, and general thyroid scans can be at risk.
I reported on findings issued back in late 2002 which showed that patients who received radioactive tests or treatments were setting off 9/11-related portable radiation detectors at government buildings. In another study which I reported on in late 2004, experts estimated the maximum length of time that diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals could set off radiation detectors. Specifically, they found:
- FDG PET scan – less than 24 hours
- Bone and thyroid scans – 3 days
- Cardiac exams with thallium – up to 30 days
- Radioiodine therapy – up to 95 days
Source: Gangopadhyay, Kalyan, et. al. "Triggering radiation alarms after radioiodine treatment," British Medical Journal , MJ 2006 333: 293-294. (Abstract)
Comments
Has anyone ever experience this before?
No, I would never consent to this crude and enviornmentally dangerous practice. I am glad that there are radiation detectors. How much radiation exposure have I had not from cosmic rays but from sitting next to someone who should not be allowed to roam freely?
This is a disgusting practice.
This happened to me at the Detroit/Windsor border crossing two years ago. It was several weeks, maybe a month after RAI treatment for Grave’s. I was given a card by my doctor but was instructed I’d only need it for 7-10 days. It was very frightening, embarassing, and least of all inconvenient! I had to sit in the criminal area until their hand held detector told them exactly what kind of radiation was coming off of my body. It seemed to take forever before they were satisfied with the reading and let me go. I was totally humiliated!
I last had RAI in early June of 2005 (150 mCu), and travelled by air about 3 weeks later. I called both the Phoenix AZ airport and the local TSA office to find out what I would need for documentation if there were any problems. They told me that individuals are not screened for radioactivity, just luggage, and that I didn’t need anything.
I didn’t set off any alarms at my destination airport, either.
While I was happy that I wasn’t hassled, I wasn’t too happy with the idea that individuals aren’t monitored at all, or that there aren’t even any environmental sensors, apparently, in those airports. It seems we should be doing more.
Julain, the amount of radiation you’d absorb from sitting next to someone who had RAI 6 weeks prior is probably less than you get when you walk outside on a sunny day. Relax.