"We appreciate the studies and research in the medical and radiation analysis communities on the impact of such treatment," Donald Tighe, a DHS spokesman, said in an e-mail. "As radiation detection technologies become more sophisticated and detectors more common, doctors and patients alike should remember the benefits of carrying documentation of treatment".

Zuckier does not fault the detection equipment. The equipment must be extremely sensitive to the point of detecting the faintest traces of radiation, especially if the material is being hidden inside a lead shield. Instead, Zuckier is calling on his colleagues to provide their patients with documentation to carry and present to security officials in case they are stopped.

As an example of how the documents could help patients and authorities, Zuckier referred to the story of one man who really could have used the medical documentation. In 2002, the man - being treated for Graves' disease, a thyroid infliction - was strip-searched by police twice in the Manhattan subway system, according to a report in The New York Times. Zuckier cited another instance in which a patient, at the recommendation of his doctor, stayed away from the New York City subway after being treated with iodine 131. But when he hopped on a bus headed for Atlantic City, he tripped detectors in one of the tunnels on the way out of Manhattan.

"Patients will get stopped - that's the cost of doing business these days," Zuckier said in an interview. But he said the process should be as painless as possible.

Letters of Passage

Zuckier advocates giving patients a letter that tells security officials what type of procedure they had and when it was administered, along with a telephone number officials could call to confirm the information.

"How long should this piece of paper be carried by the patient?" Zuckier asked during a press conference. That depends on the treatment. Nuclear medicine includes only materials that are swallowed or injected, not beam radiation, X-rays or CT scans.

Patients with thyroid cancer who are being treated with iodine 131, which is swallowed, would have enough of this material in their bodies to set off alarms 95 to 100 days later. Patients who are injected with nuclear material for bone, brain or cardiac scans can expect the material to linger for less than three days.

Those are the kinds of patients who most often trip the alarms, said Mark Deacon, technical support manager for Thermo Scientific Corp., a major manufacturer of radiation detection systems. "This happens a lot." Many hand-held devices do not distinguish between the types of radiological material that is used in medicine and material that might be used for nefarious purposes. It is usually up to security officers using the devise to determine the threat, Deacon said.

For example, Deacon said if an officer gets a particularly strong reading around someone's neck, it is probably a sign the person is getting thyroid treatments.

If officers are still uncertain about what is triggering their detectors, Deacon said his company also manufactures more sophisticated devices that can distinguish isotopes used in medicine from isotopes used in bombmaking. Deacon agrees with Zuckier's push to have doctors give their patients documents and counseling to ease the process. "I don't know if they get informed enough about what they are being handed," Deacon said.

Lisa Farbstein, a spokeswoman for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which runs the subway system in Washington, said false alarms are no longer a problem for the transit authority's police officers. "[There were problems] initially, before they had the hang of how sensitive these devices are," Farbstein said.

Sean Madigan can be reached via smadigan@cq.com

Source: CQ Homeland Security

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