Fun with geiger counters!
I dropped Niko off at Georgia Veterinary Specialists Monday morning. He went in for radioiodine (radioactive iodine) treatment for hyperthyroid.
In other words, I gave my cat to people who are going to make him a four-legged furry radiation emitter for a few weeks. Sounds a little insane when put that way, doesn't it?
Typically they release the cat to go home on Thursday afternoon. In talking with the nice lady who scheduled the appointment and walked me through the process, they'll be measuring him with a geiger counter periodically to determine if the radiation levels he'll be emitting are low enough to be released. After that he's supposed to be isolated for 2 weeks.
Anyway, hearing that they'll be measuring with a geiger counter to determine when he could be released had me wondering just how much radiation he'll be emitting and how far it would reach. Partly because I'm curious, partly because at the time I didn't know what the release threshold was, but mainly because I want to know when he's at a level that is acceptable so I only have to maintain the isolation as long as actually necessary.
So, I poked around a bit to see what was available for geiger counters. I had no idea what was available, cost, size, usability, etc. First up, Amazon! Several different things returned, but had no idea what the differences were between the various devices.
Found a site (http://www.geigercounters.com/)that gave information on relatively inexpensive general use geiger counters. Didn't even know such things existed. Reading through the various descriptions and comparisons, I decided that I liked the built-in logging capability of the PRM-8000. And Amazon carried it too!
It's small, a little bit bigger than a 3x5 card. Thicker though. The specifications say 3.25"x5.63"x1.37". In other words, pocket size if you have large pockets. Kind of neat, had no idea what sort of background radiation levels there were or how much the fluctuated. It makes sense, just never really thought about until I was watching the meter.
I took it with me when I dropped Niko off. I was curious what it would pick up in the general hospital area, but I was also hoping that I could get it checked against their counter to confirm that it was working and accurate.
Talked with the doctor for a bit as I got the detailed walk through again about the treatment and post-release care. I asked what the threshold was for release and found that state regulation is 500 millirem measured at 3 feet. I had assumed the measurement was taken at the neck. Seems that the state doesn't require measuring at the neck but the vet school he was at was more stringent and did measure at the neck.
Part of post-release care is using flushable litter and flushing waste for about 2 weeks. Was warned about doing normal disposal in trash since landfills scan for radiation. In a few states it did trigger alarms and caused the sites to get shutdown for inspection by HazMat teams. In some cases they wound up tracing the source back to the owners from other trash contents and levied fines.
After talking with the doctor I asked if he could compare my counter against theirs. Partly to gauge accuracy, but mainly to simply confirm that it did indeed work. I don't have anything known to be radioactive (no old glow-in-the-dark watches) so I could only see random background radiation. His first comment was "wow, that's nicer than ours". His second comment was that in 12 years of treating cats no one has ever brought in their own geiger counter. Yes, I'm a bit odd.
He seemed intrigued by it so he did go check it against theirs using a reference source. It is indeed a functioning geiger counter, yay! And fairly accurate. Doing an exact 1:1 measurement comparison isn't really possible between the two meters, but they did register close to the same values. And it was more than sufficient to trigger the threshold alarm on my meter. I had set it for .05 millirem (50 microrem) since I hadn't seen anything reach that level. When he brought it back it showed a max value of .119 millirem. I wondered when I was fiddling with the alarm if it would go off at the hospital but then forgot about it until after he came back with it beeping.
So I have a functioning geiger counter. With functioning threshold alarm. I'll be able to measure Niko when I go to pick him up later in the week and see how it compares to their measurement. Plus afterward I will be able to gauge what sort of distance is required to keep exposure to a minimum without necessarily requiring total isolation.
I'm also curious if the thermal camera will detect anything. I don't expect it to, but I need to remember to try it and see.
In other words, I gave my cat to people who are going to make him a four-legged furry radiation emitter for a few weeks. Sounds a little insane when put that way, doesn't it?
Typically they release the cat to go home on Thursday afternoon. In talking with the nice lady who scheduled the appointment and walked me through the process, they'll be measuring him with a geiger counter periodically to determine if the radiation levels he'll be emitting are low enough to be released. After that he's supposed to be isolated for 2 weeks.
Anyway, hearing that they'll be measuring with a geiger counter to determine when he could be released had me wondering just how much radiation he'll be emitting and how far it would reach. Partly because I'm curious, partly because at the time I didn't know what the release threshold was, but mainly because I want to know when he's at a level that is acceptable so I only have to maintain the isolation as long as actually necessary.
So, I poked around a bit to see what was available for geiger counters. I had no idea what was available, cost, size, usability, etc. First up, Amazon! Several different things returned, but had no idea what the differences were between the various devices.
Found a site (http://www.geigercounters.com/)that gave information on relatively inexpensive general use geiger counters. Didn't even know such things existed. Reading through the various descriptions and comparisons, I decided that I liked the built-in logging capability of the PRM-8000. And Amazon carried it too!
It's small, a little bit bigger than a 3x5 card. Thicker though. The specifications say 3.25"x5.63"x1.37". In other words, pocket size if you have large pockets. Kind of neat, had no idea what sort of background radiation levels there were or how much the fluctuated. It makes sense, just never really thought about until I was watching the meter.
I took it with me when I dropped Niko off. I was curious what it would pick up in the general hospital area, but I was also hoping that I could get it checked against their counter to confirm that it was working and accurate.
Talked with the doctor for a bit as I got the detailed walk through again about the treatment and post-release care. I asked what the threshold was for release and found that state regulation is 500 millirem measured at 3 feet. I had assumed the measurement was taken at the neck. Seems that the state doesn't require measuring at the neck but the vet school he was at was more stringent and did measure at the neck.
Part of post-release care is using flushable litter and flushing waste for about 2 weeks. Was warned about doing normal disposal in trash since landfills scan for radiation. In a few states it did trigger alarms and caused the sites to get shutdown for inspection by HazMat teams. In some cases they wound up tracing the source back to the owners from other trash contents and levied fines.
After talking with the doctor I asked if he could compare my counter against theirs. Partly to gauge accuracy, but mainly to simply confirm that it did indeed work. I don't have anything known to be radioactive (no old glow-in-the-dark watches) so I could only see random background radiation. His first comment was "wow, that's nicer than ours". His second comment was that in 12 years of treating cats no one has ever brought in their own geiger counter. Yes, I'm a bit odd.
He seemed intrigued by it so he did go check it against theirs using a reference source. It is indeed a functioning geiger counter, yay! And fairly accurate. Doing an exact 1:1 measurement comparison isn't really possible between the two meters, but they did register close to the same values. And it was more than sufficient to trigger the threshold alarm on my meter. I had set it for .05 millirem (50 microrem) since I hadn't seen anything reach that level. When he brought it back it showed a max value of .119 millirem. I wondered when I was fiddling with the alarm if it would go off at the hospital but then forgot about it until after he came back with it beeping.
So I have a functioning geiger counter. With functioning threshold alarm. I'll be able to measure Niko when I go to pick him up later in the week and see how it compares to their measurement. Plus afterward I will be able to gauge what sort of distance is required to keep exposure to a minimum without necessarily requiring total isolation.
I'm also curious if the thermal camera will detect anything. I don't expect it to, but I need to remember to try it and see.