Radiation management for infectious waste from nuclear medicine studies

An industrial waste management service has refused to collect medical waste from our hospital owing to radioactive contamination found in the waste in July 2000. An investigation revealed that the ''three-way stopcock'' and handling diapers used for radioisotope examination were the radioactive contaminants. We therefore reconsidered the system of medical waste maintenance especially for radioactive materials. Since February 2001, we have resumed radiation maintenance by following the manual for the handling diapers of patients administered radiopharmaceuticals issued by five organizations associated with Japan Radiological Society (JRS), Japanese Society of Radiological Technology (JSRT), the Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine (JSNM), the Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine Technology (JSNMT), and Japan Association on Radiological Protection in Medicine (JARPM). A major change was to check the radioactive waste at the individual departments and at a centralized check system. This eliminated the problem of dumping radioactive material into medical waste as well as resolving the concerns of the industrial waste management service. (author)