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Lab Report No. 46 tUsteW :JSf? : ' : »** How we put atoms to work Abbott Laboratories r ^ l North Chicago, Illinois C Z J Ever take a radio-pharmaceutical? P r o b a b l y n o t -- t h e y ' r e among the newer medical miracles. Physicians use them to locate tumors or see how your liver, kidneys, thyroid, or other organs are working. Nice thing about radio-pharmaceuticals, though --they're among the safest drugs known. In the proper hands, they allow the physician to work with greater ease and precision than ever before. These drugs have an odd characteristic. They lose strength rapidly; they dwindle at a steady, measurable rate --often in just days. As an example, let's talk about one Abbott radio-pharmaceutical, Iodine131. It loses half its strength in eight days. Within the human body, the drug safely disappears day by day. This disappearing act creates a problem: the drug cannot be warehoused. We cannot make 1-131, put it on a shelf, and use it a year later. To work, 1-131 must be made, purified, compounded, and shipped--all in one day. Abbott makes 1-131 and other radiopharmaceuticals at its new plant at Abbott Park, near the Tri-State Tollway and Buckley Road. A fact to remember: the new plant puts out no radiation. Even the wastes are held and checked for safety. The plant is safe for people who work there and for those who live nearby. No noise, no smoke, no dirt, and no radiation. Cleanest place you ever saw. The raw material comes to us from several sources (once our chief source was the Oak Ridge, Tenn., atomic plant). It is impure when we get it. Atomic irradiation causesan element to shift into another form. These are called isotopes of the basic element. Samples must be "cleansed" of stray impurities. It's Safe: Our employees never handle the material directly. Instead, they work protected by thick concrete walls and lead-glass windows. With weirdlooking mechanical "hands," the arm. hand, and finger movements of the operator are repeated by other "hands" inside shielded compartments. The purified element is divided into smaller units. Radiation drops to as little as 1 1000th of the original. Nevertheless, we still take precautions. We compound each product in its own laboratory. We still handle the drugs by remote control. Speed, Speed, Speed: An order to any of Abbott's 22 branch offices in the U.S. goes by T e l e t y p e d i r e c t l y to Abbott Park. We begin compounding almost immediately. Each order is as individual as a prescription you have filled at your neighborhood pharmacy. Orders received by 2 p.m. will be at O'Hare Airport before 8 p.m. Each radio-pharmaceutical is in a brick-size cylinder of lead and plastic, marked with the radiation symbol. Within minutes, Abbott radio-pharmaceuticals can be winging to any part of our country. When you hear the word radio-pharmaceuticals--just remember this--the Abbott stress is on safety, effectiveness, purity, and speed. A t o m s a t work --they're a vital. growing force in modern medicine.