RE: Anyone know about this?

["Jim Hardeman" <Jim_Hardeman@dnr.state.ga.us>]

Wes *



As a matter of fact, yes, I think they could (and should) have done better, in the following ways:



1) The company employee who called 911 should have been familiar enough with the devices to know that even in a severe fire, they were likely not to pose a hazard outside the room in which they were located. Unshielded source rods from these density gauges are likely to result in radiation levels of 2-3 R/hr essentially at contact ... barely above background at perhaps 10 meters. These are some of the most robust radioactive materials devices in existence ... I've seen them completely engulfed in fire (such that the shielding melted away), run over by heavy earth moving equipment, etc. ... and in 22 years I've year to see a "leak" from one ... although I have seen the AmBe source "seeds" come out of the device.



2) The firefighters as much as admitted that they were not familiar with their radiation detection equipment. Quoting from the Palm Beach Post article ... "West Palm Beach fire-rescue workers rarely use the radiation machines that are on each truck, Jones said. But the firefighters pulled it out when they learned that the building housed machines that used radiation.". Also, they apparently displayed a lack of understanding as to the significance of their findings ... again quoting from the Palm Beach Post article ... "Firefighters didn't find a fire, only the smell of burning wire or rubber and a reading of 95 clicks per minute on the first responders' Geiger-counter-like radiation machine. Fifty clicks is considered normal. 'Anything above (that) is hairy,' said fire-rescue spokesman Phil Kaplan." Did you catch that? Essentially, they were seeing twice background ... and their spokesman essentially says that anything about background "is hairy".



Sorry, I don't buy the argument that this is OK, and that we couldn't have done any better. If we can't figure out a way to determine what's significant and what's not, we're going to run ourselves ragged chasing Tc-99m at landfills and causing large scale evacuations (and imposing financial burdens) for "no never mind" incidents ... essentially playing into the hands of those who would use the general public's ignorance of all things radioactive as a weapon against us.



Again, my $0.02 worth ...











Jim Hardeman, Manager

Environmental Radiation Program

Environmental Protection Division

Georgia Department of Natural Resources

4220 International Parkway, Suite 100

Atlanta, GA 30354

(404) 362-2675

Fax: (404) 362-2653

E-mail: Jim_Hardeman@dnr.state.ga.us



>>> "Wesley" <wesvanpelt@att.net> 1/27/2005 8:13:45 >>>

Barbara, Eric and Fellow Radsafers,



 



I read the newspaper article on the false radiation alarm. (see link below.)



 



We should look at this from the perspective of a public official charged

with protecting citizens. It seems that they responded quite well to the

situation:



1.	Smoke or haze in a room where radiation was also detected.

2.	Tell people within 3 (10?) blocks to close doors and turn off A/C

units ("shelter in place")

3.	The all-clear was announced within 2 hours. (Not bad timing for an

emergency radiological detection, response, public notice and final

evaluation.) 



 



Could we have done better?  



 



What would you have done differently?



 



Best regards,



Wes



Wesley R. Van Pelt, PhD, CIH, CHP



 <http://home.att.net/~wesvanpelt/Radiation.html> Wesley R. Van Pelt

Associates, Inc.







  _____  



From: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu 

[mailto:owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu] On Behalf Of Hill, Eric D

Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2005 11:21 PM

To: 'Cehn@aol.com'; radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu 

Subject: RE: Anyone know about this?



 



False alarm.



 



http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/home/article/0,1651,TCP_996_3500728,00.html 



 



 







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