Iodine-131 is commonly used in medical diagnosis and therapy for patients with hyperthyroidism or differentiated thyroid cancer. Following treatment, patients may recuperate in a hotel room to avoid exposing family members. The main purpose of this study was to estimate external effective dose rate coefficients to a hotel worker who handles potentially contaminated bed linens due to secretions from I-131 patients as sweat or urine. The external dose rate estimates were derived using Monte Carlo radiation transport code and the phantom with movable arms and legs to model a housekeeper standing in an upright position holding a pile of bed linens. Simulations further integrated the body burden of time-dependent biokinetic metabolism of I-131 in the patient's body, differentiating between biokinetic excretion models of hyperthyroid vs. cancer patients. Organ absorbed dose rate and effective dose rate coefficients were calculated for three scenarios of bed linen contamination and estimated out to 5 d postadministration and compared to past I-131 patient contamination measurements.
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