Response to radiation incidents and radionuclear threats: Other threats may be more serious

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7447.1074-a

BMJ 2004;328:1074 (1 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7447.1074-a

Letter

Response to radiation incidents and radionuclear threats

Other threats may be more serious

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—I agree with Turai et al that radiation injurycould occur by accident in countries where disintegrating politicalentities such as the former Soviet Union leave the debris oftheir nuclear programmes lying around for an unsuspecting publicto pick up.^1
2 However, I am less sure of the real, as againsthysterical, threat in Western Europe and North America.

Outside closely guarded nuclear power stations, weapons establishments,and waste stores the most available stores of radioactive materialsare in hospitals or industry. Solid sources used in industryand radio-therapy are well shielded and sealed. If these sealswere broken by a terrorist the most likely person injured wouldbe him or her.

The radiation would have to be dispersed, presumably by an explosivedevice. However, this would not ensure ingestion—the bestway to get a lot of radiation into someone—and would beeasily detected. Also, once the radiation . . . [Full text of this article]

John R Buscombe, consultant in nuclear medicine

Royal Free Hospital, London NW3 2QG j.buscombe@rfc.ucl.ac.uk

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Medical response to radiation incidents and radionuclear threats: István Turai, Katalin Veress, Bengül Günalp, and Gennadi Souchkevitch
BMJ 2004 328: 568-572. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]