Los Angeles gets radiation detectors

[goldinem@SONGS.SCE.COM]

Here's an excellent article from Wednesday's San Diego Union-Trib.   Good

PR for the HPS as well.   Thanks to those folks who have worked tirelessly

to make these CDV instruments available to teachers, and now for first

responders.



Los Angeles gets radiation detectors



Biggest cities to receive surplus U.S. equipment





By Toby Eckert

COPLEY NEWS SERVICE





April 23, 2003





WASHINGTON ? Surplus radiation detection equipment is on its way to the

Port of Los Angeles and the city's fire department, courtesy of the federal

government.





The move comes amid concern that terrorists may try to use a

radiation-spewing "dirty" bomb or an atomic device in an attack, though

officials said the equipment also could be used for accidents involving

radioactive material. The San Francisco Health Department is getting

similar equipment.





The devices are being provided initially to agencies in the nation's 10

largest metropolitan areas through a program run by the federal Energy and

Homeland Security departments. The program, launched last year, will be

open to smaller metropolitan areas in June, officials said.





"Other cities have expressed an interest," including San Diego, said Bobbie

Walton, who is coordinating the program in California for the state Office

of Emergency Services.





"This is part of our effort to equip first responders," said Rachel

Sunbarger, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department. "We're going

to be distributing stuff to a lot of urban areas."





The equipment for Los Angeles and San Francisco, worth about $60,000,

includes Geiger counters, digital displays that emergency workers can clip

to their belts to monitor radiation exposure and meters that can detect

weak radiation fields, an Energy Department official said.





Theresa Adams Lopez, a spokeswoman for the Port of Los Angeles said: "We

didn't actually seek it out. They called us and asked us if we wanted it.

At this point, any equipment in our arsenal is going to be better for us."





The items come from Energy Department sites around the country and would

otherwise be scrapped or auctioned because they are no longer needed, said

Richard Meehan, a department official in Oak Ridge, Tenn., who devised the

program. They are refurbished before being offered to state and local

emergency agencies, along with training.





"It may be dented up and scratched. But, by and large, the equipment is

designed to take a beating," Meehan said.





The Health Physics Society, a 6,000-member organization of radiation safety

professionals, has offered local support for the equipment, including

maintenance and calibration.





So far, the program has provided more than 1,500 radiation detection

devices to agencies in cities including New York, Philadelphia, Boston,

Detroit and Washington, D.C., according to the Homeland Security

Department.





Fears that terrorists may use a dirty bomb ? a conventional explosive

containing radioactive material ? or a more sophisticated nuclear device

have been high since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the Pentagon and World

Trade Center. U.S. officials arrested a former Chicago gang member, Jose

Padilla, in May 2002 on allegations that he was part of an al-Qaeda plot to

set off a dirty bomb.





Copyright 2003 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.







Eric M. Goldin

<goldinem@songs.sce.com>





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