Liquid discharges from the use of radionuclides in medicine (diagnosis)

The production and discharge of liquid radioactive wastes as excreta from patients undergoing Nuclear Medicine Diagnostic (NMD) in a hospital were studied. Instantaneous and accumulated activity, discharged from the hospital to the sewage system, has been estimated keeping in mind radionuclide decay. This study would enable estimation of the environmental impact due to NMD procedures. Annual accumulated activities of 2.2 GBq (131I), 1.847 GBq (99mTc), 0.743 GBq (123I), 0.337 GBq (67Ga), 0.169 GBq (111In) and 0.033 GBq (201Tl) result from our model when applied to a European hospital. A comparison is made with calculations by other authors that do not consider the radionuclide decay and who overestimate by two orders of magnitude. Doses to critical people as sewage treatment workers are also significantly reduced. So, our results stress the importance of including the decay in the calculations.