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Re: Man Sentenced in radioactive Poisoning Case
At 10:30 AM 1/10/00 -0600, you wrote:
>This is one more case in the current "epidemic" of intentional misuse
incidents. In
>this case, enforcment action against the licensee may be appropriate, since
it seems
>that the radioactive material used had not been properly secured.
>
>This is something that the regulators, as well as all health physicists,
should be
>addressing. Make sure that all radioactive material at your facility is
properly
>secured against removal by unauthorized persons, and that all those
authorized access
>to this material are properly screened and trained, to provide a reasonable
assurance
>that this will not happen. Your facility should publicize and enforce a zero
>tolerance policy for any intentional misuse.
>
>I say this, because I am concerned about radioactive material seeming to
become a
>weapon of choice for workplace and domestic violence. Publicity of these
events will
>furter erode public confidence in our ability to safety manage our technology.
>
>The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
>It's not about dose, it's about trust.
>
>Bill Lipton
>liptonw@dteenergy.com
>
>Sandy Perle wrote:
>
>> Man Sentenced in radioactive Poisoning Case
>>
>> PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A former Brown University graduate student
>> who used radioactive iodine to poison his ex-girlfriend was sentenced
>> to 10 years of probation Friday.
>>
>> Superior Court Judge Francis Darrigan said Cheng Gu, 26, lost his
>> chance for a U.S. education, was shamed before his friends and family
>> and likely would be deported to China as a result of his crime. A
>> prison sentence would serve no purpose, he said.
>>
>> Gu's ex-girlfriend, Yuanyuan Xiao, was not hurt because the dose was
>> so low. She asked the judge not to impose a harsh sentence.
>>
>> ``He wanted the iodine to make her ugly so no one else would want
>> her,'' prosecutor Stacey Veroni said. ``This isn't a case of a man in
>> love or a lovesick defendant. This is a case of domestic violence.''
>>
>> Gu, a molecular pharmacology graduate student, said he stole a
>> radioactive isotope of iodine from a Brown lab and spiked his
>> girlfriend's food on more than one occasion.
>>
>> She was found to be contaminated during a routine procedure performed
>> on her before she was to conduct an experiment using radioactive
>> materials. Brown's radiation safety officers went to Xiao's apartment
>> and found high levels of radiation coming from a dish of leftovers.
>>
>> Her roommate, James O'Brien, had also eaten the food, and was found
>> to be contaminated as well.
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Sandy Perle Tel:(714) 545-0100 /
(800) 548-5100
>> Director, Technical Extension 2306
>> ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division Fax:(714) 668-3149
>> ICN Biomedicals, Inc. E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
>> ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com
>> Costa Mesa, CA 92626
>>
>> Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/scperle
>> ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com
>>
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>
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Dear Radsafers:
I disagree completely that the University had any blame in this case. The
blame goes to the criminal. If someone picked up a chair and smashed in
someone's head with it, is the University responsible because chairs were
not secured against lifting? If someone drives drunk and hurts someone, do
you blame the car manufacturer? If this graduate student had poisoned her
with nonradioactive salts of mercury or lead, would the University have been
blamed for having these materials in chemistry labs and not searching fully
every single person who walked out of the lab each time, 24 hours a day, 7
days a week? Is this what you want? There are far more hazardous
materials at Brown University than a little P-32. The only way you can make
sure that no criminal can use any of it is to shut down the University.
NRC's disgusting propensity to blame the University (or the NIH in a similar
case) merely illustrates a pathological need of the NRC to screw people for
the hell of it and publicize overblown radiation hazard. This carefully
manufactured public fear serves to keep the public hysterical about
radioactivity and secure NRC's generally worthless and certainly detrimental
Materials Program. A similar incident that occurred at U.C. San Francisco
many years ago was handled completely differently by intelligent radiation
protection people at UCSF and the Radiological Health Branch in Sacramento.
First, it was handled quietly, with much concern for the victims. Secondly,
there was no purposeful public disclosure of inflated radiation doses, as
committed by the NRC during the NIH affair. And third, there was no
obstruction of the radiation safety personnel by the radiation regulator to
locate the culprit, as there was by NRC at the NIH.
I strongly recommend that all RSO's and Agreement State radiation regulators
ignore NRC's irrational recent cause celebre to secure all radioactive
material as if it were vats of weapons grade plutonium. Chances are, if you
look around your laboratories at radioactive material in use there, the lead
shielding is more of a hazard as a weapon than the radioactive material.
Ciao, Carol
Carol S. Marcus, Ph.D., M.D.
<csmarcus@ucla.edu>
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