WoW, who would have guessed?

[guohua]

This I did find very interesting, maybe you will too.

Crematorium, Scientists Say

Cremating certain cancer patients treated with radiation may release hot particles into air that could be inhaled by crematory workers.

REALLY?

An Arizona crematorium tested hot for radioactive contamination, and the likely source is a cremated man who was treated for cancer shortly before dying, a new study finds.

The medical community has long been aware of potential safety risks associated with cremating cancer patients treated with “radiopharmaceuticals,” according to Nathan Yu, the study’s lead author and a resident physician in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. But contamination of a facility has not been reported until now.

I guess the intense heat of the Cremation process failed to burn off the effects radiation treatment.
WoW, never thought about that, have you?

Given their alarming findings at the Arizona crematorium, Yu and his colleagues are calling for a more systematic approach to handling this safety challenge. There are no federal rules about exposed dead bodies, resulting in a patchwork of state regulation, according to their letter published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
And Arizona currently doesn’t have any such rules.

 They soon well have. Making the cheaper process of Cremation not available and the Extremely expensive lead casket ground burial the only way, making the Funeral Companies VERY Happy!

When the Mayo Clinic staff discovered their patient’s sudden death, they took steps, including reaching out to the state’s Bureau of Radiation Control, that resulted in a survey of the crematorium.

About a month after the man was treated with lutetium Lu 177 dotatate, the very same isotope was detected in low levels on the equipment used to cremate the body, including the oven, vacuum filter, and bone crusher.


The discovery of radioactive contamination from lutetium “is something we were looking for,” Yu said. “But there was an unexpected finding of another radioisotope” — specifically, technetium Tc 99m in the urine of the crematory operator — suggesting radioactive contamination at crematoriums is a more widespread problem.

Technetium is also commonly used in the treatment of cancer.

Since the operator had not been exposed to it in a medical treatment, the researchers suspect the exposure came from handling and cremating a different body.

Read more here: Source