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Re: Radiation found in Pelham garbage
Back in 1984 a sensational report headlined "Radioactive danger in central
Israel" and "Caution! Radioactive fallout" was published in an Israeli
weekly magazine. The report claimed that my instructions, which exempted
wastes containing minute levels of radioactive materials from being sent to
the Central Radioactive Waste Disposal Site , would endanger the life of
hundreds of thousands of people who live in the Tel Aviv area. The
journalist also claimed that experts told him that "the severity of the
offense cannot be judged according to custmary punitive means".
I sued the magazine, the journalist and the editor for libel and
defamation. The District Court, and later also the Supreme Court of Israel,
found the defendants guilty as charged and ordered the payment of punitive
compensation of about 80,000 U.S. dollars, the highest ever decreed by the
supreme court in libel cases.
Best regards,
Yehoshua Kalish
Consultant on Radiation Safety
Hod-Hasharon, Israel
----- Original Message -----
From: <goldinem@SONGS.SCE.COM>
To: <radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2003 12:57 AM
Subject: Radiation found in Pelham garbage
>
>
>
>
> 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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