Protection of doctors and nurses has become a serious problem since cobalt radiation :herapy has increased in popularity, participants in the American Cancer Society's sixth annual institute for nurses were told Thursday.
Dr. Seymour Ochsner, assistant medical director and assistant head of radiology at Ochsner Clinic, was a speaker on the final day's program of the institute.
Also an associate professor at the Tulane University Medical School, Dr. Seymour said such radiation comes from a piece of cobalt that remains active and radiating all the time, unlike X-ray tubes, which can be turned or or off.
Dr. Ocshner was a member of a panel also comprised of Dr. Manuel Garcia, director of the Department of Therapeutic Radiology at Charity Hospital, and John W. Hidalgo, chief of the radiation laboratory in Tulane's Physics Department and attending physicist at Charity Hospital's therapeutic radiology de partment.'
Also speaking Thursday were were Dr. William Leon,, clinica assistant professor at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine; Dr. Joseph E. Schen thai, chairman of the profession al education committee of the cancer society's New Orleans unit, head of Hutchinson Me morial Clinic and director of the Tulane Cancer Detection Clinic tMiss Mary Lou Snyder and Mrs Flora Blackstock.
