Re: Man Sentenced in radioactive Poisoning Case

[NINNI JACOB <Ninni_Jacob@brown.edu>]

At 10:30 AM 01/10/2000 -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.


Dear Mr. Lipton:

I respectfully differ from your opinion.

In this case the material was properly secured.
The student in question had access to the lab. As Mr. Rotman and Carol
Marcus pointed out, this was a willful, deliberate act, and these kind
of  acts are hard to prevent in a research setting.

The regulators did not take any action against us(the licensee), because
they realized that this was an intentional act, and not a breach in
security.

It was because of the policies we(the licensee) had  in place for
monitoring, etc that we were able to catch this in time, and prevent
further harm. All the personnel in the lab were properly trained,
including this student. 

I was the person involved with the whole investigation, so if you need
any more information, you can contact me directly, and I will try to
answer your questions.

Sincerely,

Ninni Jacob, CHP

Radiation and Biological Safety Officer

Office of Risk Management

Brown University - Box 1914

164 Angell Street

Providence, RI 02912

Tel:401 863 1738

Fax:401 863 7676

email: Ninni_Jacob@brown.edu