Eric ?
It DOES happen frequently ... more frequently than we would like. In fact, we had one of these down in Taylor County, GA (~60 miles west of Macon) on Veterans Day. NORMALLY, we would have responded the following day, but SOMEHOW, the call went into the National Response Center instead of to our state 24-hour warning point. SO ... by the time we got the troops together and out the door, I had already received calls from TWO (count 'em ... TWO) DHS folks in DC. While en route, we also received "do you need any help" calls from our regional DOE and EPA folks, and CDC asked us about it the following AM.
Only difference is that we exercised a little "common sense", after having responded to literally hundreds of these things. First, we didn't go "dumpster diving" to determine exactly where what the material was. We knew it was I-131 (from our handy dandy Exploranium GR-135) and we knew it was 1. 5 mR/hr at contact with the truck ... so we were reasonably confident that we had less than 1 mCi on our hands ... probably patient excreta (which "technically" isn't radioactive material ... at least as far as our regulations ... anyway). So ... we decided (as we do in most similar instances) that the best place for this material was in the sanitary landfill. If they've got leakage problems such that this stuff is going to get to somebody before it all decays away, they've got FAR GREATER problems.
My $0.02 worth ...
P.S. I would have flown to NY and back, AND stored the garbage, for $4K.
Jim Hardeman
Jim_Hardeman@dnr.state.ga.us
>>> <goldinem@SONGS.SCE.COM> 11/25/2003 17:57:12 >>>
Someone earlier asked about radiation monitor alarms due to nuclear
medicine procedures (I think). Well here's an article about the end of
that story, so to speak. I believe this is Westchester County outside of
NYC and I would suspect that this happens frequently at municipal
landfills. Amusing (and sad) that the village with the County's
recommendation decided to spend $4000 to "dispose" of material that would
decay to undetectable levels in a few weeks under a mountain of garbage.
Anyone out there willing to take $4000 for storing a bag of garbage for a
couple of months? I'm sure the "human waste" issues are more hazardous.
Eric Goldin, CHP
<goldinem@songs.sce.com>
Radiation found in Pelham garbage
By KEN VALENTI
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: November 25, 2003)
Investigators have no way of knowing where
a "very small amount" of radioactive
iodine-131 got into trash collected in
Pelham, but a health official said
yesterday that the find should cause no
worries.
"It poses no danger to the public at all,"
Westchester County Health Department
spokeswoman Mary Landrigan said of the
iodine found last week.
The iodine ? used to treat thyroid problems
and found in nuclear facilities ? was
picked up by Suburban Carting trash
collectors during their routine collections
in Pelham and detected by federally
required sensors at the Westchester County
transfer station in Mount Vernon.
"A very small amount of radiation was found
in a pile of tissues found in a garbage
bag," Landrigan said. The material, in
hygienic tissues, was determined to be
human waste from someone who had received
treatments for cancer, probably of the
thyroid, Landrigan said.
Finding such material is not common, but it
does happen on occasion, partly because new
sensing technologies pick up smaller
amounts of radioactive material, Landrigan
said.
"The transfer stations have just
ultra-sensitive devices," she said.
The sensors are at the county's three
transfer stations ? in Mount Vernon,
Yonkers and White Plains ? and at the
resource recovery plant in Peekskill, where
the trash is burned, said Robert Matarazzo,
the county's deputy commissioner of
environmental facilities.
Another small amount was found at the Mount
Vernon transfer station in October in trash
coming from New Rochelle, county
spokeswoman Donna Greene said. Such
incidents are likely to become more common
with take-home cancer medicines, she said.
The Pelham material was found Nov. 17 and
Richard Slingerland, the Pelham village
administrator, was notified.
"The truck was held off to the side until
the manager and I could get over there,"
Slingerland said. "Then the county Health
Department arrived."
On advice from the county Health Department
and state and federal agencies, the village
hired a professional firm licensed to
transport and dispose of radioactive waste
? Radiac Research Corp. of Brooklyn ? to
remove the waste for $4,000. It was taken
away Wednesday, Slingerland said.
Suburban Carting officials did not return a
call yesterday.
Landrigan said there was no way to
determine where the waste came from.
Send e-mail to Ken Valenti
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