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This is a full transcript of the online presentation. For the presentation itself, go here.

Presented by: Steve Furnace, AA, RSO, Hazmat Specialist
Bureau of Radiation Control
Division of Environmental Health
Contact Number: 407-297-2096 Ext. 214

Hello, my name is Steve Furnace, I’m with the Bureau of Radiation Control that is with the Department of Health and I’m also a part of Emergency Response Group and the Training Officer within the Emergency Response Group. My phone number is 407-297-2096. Probably in the last three years we have trained over 4,000 first responders in the state, as well as Federal responders: FBI, US customs, FDLE, and various fire departments. Some of the things we are going to talk about is, us what we can do for you, ionizing radiation fundamentals, nuclear power plants, sources of radiation, health effects, and WMD involving radiological devices.

Starting out with us, Bureau of Radiation Control, what do we do? Well, we’re mandated by the state to inspect all ionizing radiation devices within the state of Florida. We are what’s called an agremes state by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or the NRC. Meaning we do the inspections and the NRC inspect us. We participant and evaluate nuclear power plant drills. We probably have close six drills a year with the nuclear power plant, primarily outside the gate and how it deals with the public. We respond to all radiological incidents within the state of Florida. We average close to 200 radiological incidents a year within the state. Primarily waste from hospitals or oncology things like that. We have an environmental surveillance lab. Prior to these nuclear power plants being built, they took soil, water samples, vegetation, fish, and in these labs they went ahead and found what the background radiation was, kind a like getting the baseline on a  patient. Then they built the nuclear power plants. And since that time the, early seventies, they have been going ahead and sampling and it comes back to this lab.

In this environmental radiation lab we have four programs. We have a drinking water program some of these phosphate mines we’ll go ahead and have water retention ponds and things like that. And they’ll take samples and find out if there’s any high levels of radioactivity in them. There is an inspection and compliance program. If we find some unknown source of radiation they’ll bring it here and we’ll actually identify the isotope. We have pre-imposed mining program down in south central Florida. These’s quite a bit of phosphate mining and they have uranium as well as radium involved and we need to know how higher the levels are. It’s natural, it’s always been there, but for public health we always inspect it. We also have a power plant surveillance program which I spoke about earlier.

Getting into radiation, there’s actually two main types of radiation. There’s what called naturally occurring radiation and those made by humans, and the three components of environmental radiation are: cosmic rays, ray that receive from outer space, terrestrial radiation, the natural radiation that’s in the earth, and also internally deposited radionuclide’s, that means the radioactive material that’s, that’s in your body. Potassium 40, you’ll see that no salt is naturally radioactive, and people sprinkle it on there food all the time. What is ionizing radiation? That’s all we are concerned about is ionizing radiation and I’d say a strict definition is: Ionizing radiation is produced by unstable atoms. That they differ from stable atoms because they have an excess of energy or mass. When these unstable atoms are said to be radioactive, and in order to reach stability, these atoms will give off, or emit, the excess energy or mass. And these emissions are called radiation. It’s not microwave ovens; it’s not your cell phones, that’s not ionizing radiation.

The nuclear power plants in Florida, we have actually three different sites and five reactors. Turkey point on south Florida, by homestead has two reactors, Saint Lucie has two reactor, Crystal River has one reactor, and Farley, which is in Alabama approximately 20 miles within the Alabama border from Florida, has two reactor, these’s also a reactor … small research reactor at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Dealing with the nuclear power plants again we practice drills involving a 10 mile emergency planning zone and a 50 mile emergency planning zone. The 10 mile emergency planning zone, for emergency managers within these zones, are concerned primarily with the evacuation, if need, and how to help the public out within the ten miles itself. Also the distribution of potassium iodide or KI by county or state representatives will happen within these ten miles. Then there is the 50 mile emergency planning zone. This area is for ingestion path zone and the primary concern there is foodstuffs, plants, and animal livestock.

Some helpful acronyms out there. There’s what’s called the Southern Mutual Radiation Assistance Plan. I believe there are 18 states, primarily in the southeast, that are part of this assistance plan. These are… this is a plan that will give up people and material to help us in the state of Florida if we had a radiological accident. There what’s called the emergency management assistance compact, these’s over 40 states in that compact now, same idea. Designated personnel and equipment to help us with a radiological accident. Primarily it’s used for firefighting; in 98 the governor initiated an evac when Flagler county had all those fires and I saw firefighting vehicles’ form California. The Department of Energy has, what is called a, Radiological Assistance Program or RAP teams, these are four or five man teams on the Savanna River Site in South Carolina, that’s our regional site. These people will come down and help us, say like we had the anthrax in Boca Raton, but lets say now it’s a radiological incident, you know, these DOE RAP teams can come down and offer us assistance that we need. REACTS for you with the medical backgrounds’, or physicians’, doctors, paramedics. REACTS is. that’s an acronym it says Radiation Emergency Assistance Center Training Site, there in Oakridge Tennessee. That’s a DOE facility and their main job is assist doctors, nurses, people who are suffering from radiation sickness. They also give training, yeah; you can go to their site Oakridge and receive their training. The FRERP, here’s another acronym which is the Federal Radiological Emergency Response Plan. These people are primarily out of Las Vegas Nevada they suspect it might take them close 48 hours wheels up. This is when the C-130’s come in for catastrophic events. The NEST another acronym, these are the Nuclear Emergency Search Team, another DOE asset here and these people are usually two man teams, they’ll have backpacks something on, they’re really radiation detectors and they’ll mix themselves in amongst the public looking for radioactive material.

Some of the sources of ionizing radiation in Florida. Radiopharmaceutical drug companies, there’s close to 40 Radiopharmaceutical drug companies in Florida, I believe there is 18 of them between homestead and Melbourne. They have a lot of material that transported back and forth going to these hospitals. Consumer products, smoke detectors americium 241 sources of radiation which is primarily an alpha emitter. We have stuff that is used in commercial use in industry. Radiography cameras for taking pictures of high pressure piping wells. We have radioactive waste, normally it’s all low level waste in the state of Florida. Primarily generated by hospital waste, some by the nuclear power plants also. We also have what is called NORM and that’s and acronym meaning ‘naturally occurring radioactive material’ it’s possible that your hot water heater can buildup NORM in it and it can setup alarms in some waste dump sites.

To understand radiation you also have to understand measurements, the unit of measurements. The two most common ones is called exposure rates and dose. Exposure rate means the amount of radiation possible to receive per unit time. Let’s say your car travels 60 miles per hour, you got exposure rate of 60 RADS per hour, I have to travel this speed for one hour to go 60 miles, or I have to stand here for one hour to receive a dose of 60 RADS. Getting into dose that means the total amount of radiation received, which is similar to the odometer of your car. Your car has 60,000 miles on it, you got a dose of 60 RADS. That’s radiation you got it’s yours to keep. Now to understand these units, there’s actually quite a few of them out there, and ill briefly go thru them. You’ve probably heard the RIM, which means the Rankin equivalent to man or mammal, its for biological damage to the body. The RAD is radiation absorbed dose, doctors might use that one when they are putting so much energy into a tumor. You might hear the Rankin or rinchin and that was per cubic of air. And then you’ve probably heard CURI before, which is activity level. Now CURI is basically 37 billion disintegrations per second. Usually when I train firefighters I just tell them to concentrate on the RIM. Because RIM, RAD, and Rankin all mean the same for x-ray and gamma radiation. You might hear these old hell physicists who will use it interchangeably. But again remember that RIM, RAD, and Rankin for x-ray and gamma radiation all mean the same.

Something about radiation syndromes and energy here. The more frequently a cell divide the more sensitive they are to radiation injury and the more specialized cells are the less sensitive they are to radiation injury. Something about acute radiation syndrome for high doses, and lets go for about zero to 100 RADs, generally there is no clinically observable changes, you could have some nausea at the high range in a more susceptible person and around 25 RADs you could see some blood changes. Between 100 to 400 RADs, basically the hemitropic system, or blood, is affected. Blood precursors are very radiosensitive, you could have a gradual depression in blood count over days or weeks, increased susceptibility to infection and hemorrhage, and most can recover at the lower end of the range with some medical care. Again continuing with the acute radiation syndrome let’s say you got a dose from between 400 to between 1400 RADs. That’s where the GI systems going to be affected, cells lining the intestinal tract like crypt cells are very radiosensitive, from that you can have bacteria and toxic material could gain entry into the blood stream, manifesting as diarrhea, dehydration, toxemia and survival is unlikely at the upper end of this range. Above 1400 RADs that’s where you’re getting into the cardiovascular and central nervous system is affected, blood supply will be impaired, leading to nausea, vomiting, convulsions, or unconsciousness and really there is no chance of survival. Now you heard this number some of you got here, LD 50, lethal dose or 50% and they’ll hit at 30, meaning 30 days. So lethal dose of 50% of the population could die in 30 days is usually between 400 to 450 RADs. Now that’s whole body exposure, from your head down to your knees where all your major blood vessels are at and really none to modest medical treatment.

Ok internal radiation exposure. Radioactive material can be deposited into the body by dusts, mists, or fumes, ingestion of the contaminated food or water, injection via puncture wound, or absorption thru the skin or via a wound. And out of this there are four types or products of ionizing radiation. There’s alpha particles, beta particles, neutrons, and x-ray or gamma. Saying something of the difference here lets say your alpha radiation can be stopped by paper, your skin will stop alpha radiation. It is really two protons and two neutrons, its actually the nucleus of a helium, its big it fat, it only has a range of approximately half inch to a quarter of an inch. So again your skin can stop alpha radiation, but if its ingested that’s when it is a problem. So alpha radiation is primarily an internal hazard. Beta radiation, it can have a range of eight to 12 feet, it can give you erythema, pretty bad sunburn, and is primarily still an internal hazard. It can penetrate maybe down too a centimeter to a centimeter and a half into your skin. Neutron, neutron radiation this is another one here. They have no charge and can penetrate very deeply into your skin and cause some of the atoms in your body to ionize; it can be a real problem. Neutron radiation is primarily all man made, you really don’t see this one in nature. So your chances of ever running into neutron radiation are pretty slim too none. X-ray and gamma radiation highly penetrating. Could have a range of up too 500 feet. This is where you need the lead or concrete to shield you. It can go right thru your body, its similar to neutron radiation, it can affect your body, it can actually turn some of the water into H2O2 which is hydrogen peroxide, it can affect your DNA, but that’s to high exposure too it.

Getting into the government, it has come out with some exposure limits. Dose rate to the public, a federal limit, remember I’m talking dose rate, and that’s 2 milliRIMs per hour. Remember a milli means one one-thousands of something. Emergency responder limit, for me for state Bureau of Radiation Control employees, that’s a dose of 500 milliRIMs. So if I get a dose of 500 milliRIMs I cannot respond to another radiological incident until January 1^st and then the number ratchets back to zero again. Usually I tell emergency managers and fire department personnel ‘What is your dose limit? What does your county procedures say?’ so something to look into. Starting to see a lot of female first responders out there, so you have too be concerned if there’s a pregnancy involved. If somebody declares their pregnancy, that fetus can receive no more than a 5 milliRIM dose. This is usually medical, if the mother needs to see a doctor, get x-rays, the doctor will be concerned that the fetus does not absorb anymore than 500 milliRIM.  Occupational, a federal limit again is 5 RIM per year. Let’s say you work at a nuclear power plant or you’re an x-ray tech you can no more than 5 RIM per year. And remember 1000 milliRIMs equal a RIM. So their saying 5000 milliRIM equals 5 RIM in one year.

Turn back value for state BRC personnel now this exposure rate of 5 RIM per hour. So if I’m working an incident and I find the boundaries of it and my meter goes to 5 R per hour, 5 RIMs, RADs, Rankin’s per hour I stop and turn around and report the location where I found this reading. Property a federal limit, a dose of no more than 10 RIM or 10000 milliRIM, and that’s property that’s important to the community. Let’s say I like to use the analogy of a plant pumping station for fire hydrants. You have catastrophic fires in the city these pumping stations are very important so that person can receive no more than a 10 RIM dose and then he has to come out and someone else has to take his place. Lifesaving, a federal limit, no more than a 25 RIM or 25000 milliRIM and again remember that is the number where a doctor can actually see the changes in your cells. Anything above 25 RIM is volunteers only, a federal limit again, and those are volunteers that have a education of how to respond to radiological accidents and understand the consequences. Now some of the references this comes from is the 10cfr part 20 for energy, the EPA 400 book, and Florida standard operating procedures.