Re: Radioactive Rock Found In Science Class

[Susan L Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

Sandy Perle wrote:

> This is absolutely pathetic! 



It doesn't end there.  I came across the following article earlier

today.



See

http://www.dailynewstribune.com/news/local_regional/shre_hazmat06102003.htm



Radioactive' box draws hazmat team 



By Christopher Biondi / News Staff Writer 

Tuesday, June 10, 2003



SHREWSBURY -- A small cardboard box with "radioactive" handwritten on

one side drew hazardous materials team members from throughout the

region to the Williamsburg Court apartment of an elderly widow early

this morning.



Assistant Town Manager Michael Hale said that a couple of days ago the

woman, whom he would not identify, had been cleaning out her apartment

with her late husband's son to prepare for a move.



"They found a box in a closet that had a handwritten label that said

'radioactive,'" said Hale.



While she found the white box two days ago, the woman called the Fire

Department only last night after growing concerned.



A half-dozen firefighters and two dozen members of the Hazmat District 3

team responded to Building 20 of the 109 Oak St. complex. A command

center was set up at a bowling alley along nearby Rte. 9.



Investigators interviewed the woman, who is legally blind, and learned

that her husband had once worked for a watch manufacturer, said Hale.



Early this morning, this fact led investigators to believe the box

contained radium, a compound once used to make watch dials glow.



"We hope that's all it is," said Don Filiere, director of Shrewsbury

emergency services.



The box is about one cubic foot, said Filiere, and as of Press time was

still inside the closet, untouched by investigators who were expected to

work into the morning to determine how to handle the package.



"The box is still sealed," he said. "It was never opened up."



Filiere said tests revealed low-level radiation coming from the box, but

firefighters, hazmat team members and the woman who lived in the

apartment all tested negative.



"They do things very methodically," he said of the hazmat team. "They

don't rush anything."



Radium was used to paint watch and clock hands dating from the 1920s.

Researchers became aware of the dangers of the practice when the women

hired by a New Jersey company in 1920s to paint the watches began to die

from unrelated health problems, according to research on file at New

Jersey colleges. Authorities determined the women died from radiation

exposure. The dial painters would use their mouths to form a point on

the paintbrushes, ingesting radium each time.



While American companies continued to use radium in clocks and watches

until the 1960s, government regulators stepped in the 1930s to limit

worker exposure. According to health researchers, the old watches found

in homes may not glow in the dark anymore but the radiation is still

there.



No other apartments in the large complex were evacuated. As the hazmat

team and firefighters conferred in the parking lot, the woman, who Hale

said was in her 80s, sat on a bench with a friend.



The woman called the Fire Department at about 10 p.m. After initial

testing confirmed radioactivity, the hazmat team spent the early morning

planning to remove the box.



"We don't know the amount in the package," said Filiere.



Hale said he expected the scene to be cleared sometime this morning.



Filiere said training and equipment had been in place for such incidents

long before recent emergency planning for terrorist attacks and the

creation of the Department of Homeland Security.



"Those detection units we've had for many, many years," he said.



-- 

.....................................................

Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director

Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee

102 Robertsville Road, Suite B, Oak Ridge, TN 37830

Toll free 888-770-3073 ~ www.local-oversight.org

.....................................................

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