Radioactive Cobalt Kills Two in Egypt - more press

[MIannaccone@dhhs.state.nh.us]

Radioactive Cobalt Kills Two in Egypt

CAIRO, Egypt, June 28, 2000 (ENS) - Two people are dead and five others
seriously ill following an outbreak of radiation poisoning in a village six
miles north of Cairo.

Egypt's information minister Safwat Sherif said Wednesday that an army unit
has removed a six centimeter (2.4 inch) long radioactive rod from the home
of a farmer's family in the village of Mit Halfa.

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Information minister Safwat Sherif. (Photo courtesy Egyptian Ministry of
Information.)
The family of Fadl Hassan Fadl believed the radioactive cobalt needle was a
precious metal and kept it in their home for a year, after finding it in
sand which they were going to use for construction.

Nine year old Hassan Fadl Hassan died on June 5, and his 61 year old father
Fadl Hassan Fadl died on June 16, Egypt's health ministry said in a
statement.  The other family members are being treated in Maahad Nasser
hospital in Cairo, except the eldest son of the dead farmer, who is an army
conscript.  He was transferred to an armed forces hospital.

Another 76 people were treated without being hospitalized after they showed
light symptoms of contamination in blood tests conducted on some 400 people
who knew the family.

Officials from Egypt's Electricity Ministry and the Atomic Energy Authority
of Egypt removed the object from the family home after putting it in a lead
container.  Neighboring houses were evacuated, but authorities said
residents are no longer in danger.

Qalyubia Governor Adli Hussein confirmed that the object is radioactive
cobalt, which is used to detect cancer.  The family did not become ill
until the father and a son started rubbing the object, believing it was a
precious metal to be shined.

"The security services are pursuing their investigation to determine the
source of this object and how it reached the farmer's home," a health
ministry spokesman said.

Doctors from hospitals in Cairo and near the village said the radioactive
cobalt was discovered after experts from the United States Naval Medical
Research Unit (NAMRU) examined the patients and indicated they might have
the symptoms of radiation sickness.

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Experts suspected contamination in the village after locals displayed
symptoms of radiation sickness symbolized by this logo.
NAMRU, which specializes in infectious diseases and has been in Cairo for
decades, was consulted by Egyptian doctors who had been treating Fadl
family members for infectious diseases.

Egypt has a nuclear reactor 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Cairo at
the Argentine built Inshas Nuclear Research Center, where medical and other
studies are carried out.

A spokesman for the Argentine embassy in Cairo said Tuesday that Egypt's
AEA director had informed the Argentine ambassador Osvaldo Pascual that the
radioactive material is not connected with the center.

Exposure to radiation can cause devastating damage to the immune system and
to the tissues of the body.  Radiation can also cause little understood
changes to the body's genes, which can be manifested through the
development of diseases such as cancer later in life, and possibly as birth
defects in future generations.


M Iannaccone,
Health Physicist
miannacc@dhhs.state.nh.us

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