Twelve high schools in Japan (of which six are in Fukushima Prefecture), four in France, eight in Poland and two in Belarus cooperated in the measurement and comparison of individual external doses in 2014. In total 216 high-school students and teachers participated in the study. Each participant wore an electronic personal dosimeter 'D-shuttle' for two weeks, and kept a journal of his/her whereabouts and activities. The distributions of annual external doses estimated for each region overlap with each other, demonstrating that the personal external individual doses in locations where residence is currently allowed in Fukushima Prefecture and in Belarus are well within the range of estimated annual doses due to the terrestrial background radiation level of other regions/countries.
Leukerinpowder 10%'' containing mercaptopurine (6-MP) is an oral anticancer drug that requires careful handling. As a powder formulation, there are risks of exposure due to scattering during dispensing and possible 6-MP contamination to other drugs due to adhesion to the packaging machine. We previously reported that wiping with an alcohol-containing towel is useful for removing scattered powder after dispensing. However, it is recommended to wipe disktype powder-packaging machines with water instead of cleaning with the alcohol-containing towel. Hence, we scattered 6-MP powder 100 mg (total amount of 6-MP: 10 mg), and then wiped with water three times using diŠerent types of cloth each time. We conˆrmed that third time wiping cloth did not have any 6-MP. Furthermore, we conˆrmed that the adhering 6-MP could be removed by wipe-cleaning (water-wiping twice and dry-wiping once) after dispensing 6-MP powder at two pharmacies that routinely dispensed 6-MP powder using a disk-type powder-packaging machine. In addition, we conˆrmed the adhesion of 6-MP in parts of the machine not cleaned by wipe-cleaning and also in parts that were washed only with water, in both the pharmacies. Based on the above observations, we recommend the following steps for cleaning disk-type powder-packaging machines after dispensing 6-MP powder: (1) wipe-cleaning that includes water-wiping twice and then dry-wiping once, (2) cleaning all areas of the packaging machine, and (3) wipe-cleaning with water before washing with water.
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