Re: Nine Romanian Workers Exposed to High

[Toro Laszlo <toro@ispt.ro>]

Good morning (or evening)



Please do not accept as true all the things what a romanian 

newspapwe write. The story is higly overestimated.

1. I do not think mr. Coroianu said "They got a huge dose of 

radiation from Cobalt 60, which could have killed them at once,", 

he is a very good professionist in radiation protection and the 

dose were far so high, the activity of the sources was 15-31 Ci 

about 15(? not an exact value) years ago.

2. There is not a secret: the CNCAN knew the problem, the last 

control on the site was in june 2001,the furnace was not 

dismantled at this moment. The CNCAN inspector forbided to 

continue the action.

3. even this prohibition the factory dismantled the furnace three 

days ago they refused (or I do not know) to declare the date of 

dismantling, it is sure later than june

4. On the site there is an about 20x20m zone contaminated with 

Co60. It is situated near the furnace, and the furnace itself 

dismantled to about 80%. There is pile about 5-10m high formed by 

"carbonic blocs" 100x50x50cm (about), some of the contained the 

sorces (I think 39 in total). I think these blocs form the mantle 

of the furnace, it is not sure,I am not a specialist. The 

contamination is very inhomogenous, the maximum value find by my 

team was about 200microGy/h  (the backgroud in this area is about 

160-200nGy/h, measured in the same period), the CNCAN team found 

higher maximum values. we find several hot spots with 

1-10microGy/h. we had not conditions (and it was  not our duty) 

to make ax exact radiological map of the site. It was very cold, 

my old FHT portable analyser refused to work at  this temperature 

(it was a real problem to take a soil sample for ex.), we focused 

our work to mark the contaminated zone and fence it and identify 

the workers implied in the dismantling.

5. In the first step we identified 9 workers, later the police 

find other 13. At this moment we have examined 13 of them, the 

rest leave Calan  and work in other place, but they will be 

contacted. Non of them was hospitalised. There is a declaration 

of a local doctor, in the area there is an unusual high incidence 

of cronical artrytis (I think, I am not a doctor)

6. I received just now the results of the haematological 

analysis, my collegues said, there is nothing unusual. To be 

sure, we start the procedure to establish the eventually doses by 

biological dosimetry (chromosomila aberrations).

7. The picture in Evenimentul Zilei is very impressive, but it is 

taken in an other action, in the interior of the newspaper there 

is an other picture with a building from the factory (typical) 

without any relation with the furnace

If some body is intersted in other info, you are wellcome.



Toro Laszlo





-- 

======================================================================

Laszlo Toro PhD

head of department



Institute of Public Health Timisoara

Radiation Hygiene Dept.



RO 1900 Timisoara

Bd. V. Babes 16-18

Romania

ph. +40 56 192101 ext 34

fax +40 56 192101

e-mail toro@ispt.ro

======================================================================



************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.