Posted on 05/14/2012 7:14:13 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Man pulled over for being radioactive
Last Wednesday, Mike Apatow was getting on to Interstate 84 in Newtown, CT, when police stopped him for no reason he could determine. When the cop told him that his car had set off his radioactivity detectors, it started making sense: Apatow was most certainly radioactive.
Earlier in the day, Apatow had had a bit of radioactive material injected into his veins. He wasn't trying to turn himself into a superhero—just trying to keep himself alive. The off-duty firefighter had gone to a cardiology office to have a cardiac stress test, which tracks the function of the heart by tracking radioactivity as it moves through the circulatory system. Apatow had come to the office after feeling ill earlier and finding that his blood pressure had gone up way above where it was usually. Whatever caused the blip went away quickly, and Apatow went back to work, as recounted at ctpost.com.
Cardiologists say this kind of issue is more common than you might think, and often warn their stress-test patients that they may run into some unwanted attention in places like airports. Apatow's doctor had in fact given him a document explaining the situation just in case he got ran into any suspicion of nuclear monkey business. So in the end, he emerged from both the stress test and the police stop without missing a beat.
The last time I heard of this was from a Cold War era sci-fi ...
DWR?
More at:
Radioactive man? Milford resident pulled over by state police
http://www.ctpost.com/default/article/Radioactive-man-Milford-resident-pulled-over-by-3549631.php
Yeah, the state cops have beeber-like devices that can detect radiation.
The OPSEC failure here is that the story says they don’t have spectrometers, just detectors.
Good post, thanks.
I went through that recently for a stress test when testing for warning signs of a heart attack. Also took radioactive iodine to kill off residual thyroid cancer cells. My sister also took it to ablate her hyperactive thyroid.
I worked in that field (Nuclear Medicine) for a while...it is very good technology, helps a lot of people.
I was always proud to have a hand in a specialty where you can restore a sense of normalcy to someone’s life with a painless thing like a couple of radioactive pills that kill off cancer cells or an overactive thyroid. I enjoyed that time of my life very much. (Except for the being on call all the time, of course)
Some funny stories with radiation...:) Well, funny looking BACK at them!
Allow me to thank you for so many of us, then. :o)
Those who conducted the treatments are some of the most thorough and knowledgable professionals I’ve met through all this. I’ve got more than half a notion they would agree with you on how satisfying it is. My sister is back to herself again, needing only the thyroid meds. I went through the surgeries and have some life-long issues as a result (hypoparathyroidism - so thankful my sister doesn’t have to deal with that), and yet a recent scan has shown me to be cancer-free five years later. I think the toughest part of the treatment was the need to keep a distance from others for a couple/three days. Very small price to pay.
Again, thank you, and God bless.
LOL. A couple weeks? Well, I suppose. It took some time for my sister’s to start showing any effects, I’m guessing the radioactivity would have been working all along.
If I hadn’t been a risk to others’ health, it would have been interesting to go the airport for lunch. Just to see what would have happened.
As it was, I had set up my camper in the garage and stayed in there, leaving my cat safe and sound in the house.
Ross Denton: Good afternoon, good afternoon, ladies and gentleman of the press. First, as to the president's condition, let me say that the president is feeling certainly "stronger" than he's ever felt. And he would like to be with us right here, in this room if he could. I think now I'll just open the door to questions-
Female Reporter #1: Yes, is it true that the president is 100 feet tall?
Ross Denton: Nooooo! Absolutely not!
Male reporter #3: Is the president 90 feet tall?
Ross Denton: No comment. Yes?
Male Reporter #1: Yes. While the Constitution does not specifically exclude giants and behemoths from the presidency, is it not true that the Mr. Carter's enourmous size really violates the spirit of-
Dr. Edna Casey: Look! There he is! It's the president!
[ a gigantic Jimmy Carter is seen outside of the window ]
Everyone in room: Mr. President! Mr. President!
President Jimmy Carter: Good afternoon, everybody. I'm afraid that since the army clothing engineers have been unable to fit me with a giant loincloth, I'll have to adress you through this window. First, let me say that this experience has not changed my committment to nuclear power, nor do I believe that my enourmous size will in any way limit my abilities to perfrom my duties in my office. However, this will mean some changes in my personal life. Rosalyn, I hate to spring this on you this way, but I'd like to introduce you all to my future wife and my next first lady. She was a widow, and, until recently, a maintainance worker here at Two Mile Island. Miss Violet Crawford.
[ Violet comes in looking through the window, having also become a giant from radiation, as Rosalyn Carter hits the wall in shock ]
Violet: Hi, everybody. As First Lady, I'd like to say I have nothing against nuclear power, honey. It's the best thing that ever happened to me.
Actually the post is somewhat encouraging. I am surprised that the good guys could detect radiation from Iodine 131.
It would be emitting beta particles and gamma rays. His body the air and the car would stop the beta. It would not stop the gamma rays. It is obvious that the good guys ability to detect low level gamma is better than I thought.
However I wish this information was never published. The bad guys now know that to transport bad stuff will need a lot of radiation shielding. That means a lead box with a lot of lead.
So a man in a car is radioactive enough from the confines of his car in motion to set off abnormal radiation detectors, but we should live in fear of nuke plants that don’t even display radiation levels above background 10 feet from the structure.
There’s not a fight
And I’m not your captive
Turn me loose tonight
Cause I’m radioactive
Radioactive
I know a 13 year old who is radioactive because of his thyroid treatment, he thinks it is way cool.
I had one of those tests
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