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libertangoI got my new issue of The Atlantic at the post office today. The cover story describes the "mind" of George W. Bush -- first time in a while I've seen them lead off with fiction.
But in the "Primary Sources" section, there's a printed link to a letter to the Journal of the American Medical Association that is, in The Atlantic's words, "discomfiting and reassuring in roughly equal measure". To wit, and in total:
But in the "Primary Sources" section, there's a printed link to a letter to the Journal of the American Medical Association that is, in The Atlantic's words, "discomfiting and reassuring in roughly equal measure". To wit, and in total:
"To the Editor: We recently treated a 34-year-old man for Graves disease with 20 mCi of iodine 131. Twenty-four hours after treatment, his radioactive iodine uptake was 63%. Three weeks after treatment, he returned to our clinic complaining that he had been strip-searched twice at Manhattan subway stations. Police had identified him as emitting radiation and had detained him for further questioning. He returned to the clinic and requested a letter stating that he had recently been treated with radioactive iodine.
This patient's experience indicates that radiation detection devices are being installed in public places in New York City and perhaps elsewhere. Patients who have been treated with radioactive iodine or other isotopes may be identified and interrogated by the police because of the radiation they emit.
We called the Terrorism Task Force of the New York City Police Department to determine how to prevent detainment of this group of patients. They recommended that treating physicians provide such patients with letters describing the isotope used and its dose, its biological half-life, and the date and time of treatment. The letters should also provide the physician's 24-hour telephone numbers to allow the police to verify the content of the letters. If a person who has been detected as emitting radiation provides such a letter, the police would then verify the letter's authenticity. Even in the best-case scenario, however, the patient would have to wait during this verification process. Patients should be informed about this potential problem after treatment with radioactive isotopes; they may choose not to use public transportation to avoid this inconvenience.
Christoph Buettner, MD, PhD
Martin I. Surks, MD
Department of Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
New York, NY
