Re: More on Estonia Accident

[llaufman@bcm.tmc.edu (Larry Laufman, Ed.D.)]

After seeing Robert Loesch's posts about the Estonia accident, I contacted 
the BALT-L (Baltic Republics Discussion List) list and asked if anyone add 
additional information.  In response, Toomas Molder forwarded the news items 
below, but I don't know that they add much information: 

>
>Some information from newswires ... I hope, this helps little bit.
>
>
>from Estonian Telegraph Association - ETA
>GL EAA0407 3 I   0364    /AFP-SW31
>
>            Estonia-radioactive                                                
>
>RADIOACTIVE POLLUTION DISCOVERED NEAR ESTONIAN
>CAPITAL, FOUR PEOPLE HOSPITALIZED
>
>     TALLINN, Nov 18, BNS - The Harjumaa county police
>informed the Rescue Department Thursday night that a
>13-year-old boy brought to a Tallinn hospital from the
>nearby village of Kiisa suffered from bad inflammation
>caused by exposure to radioactive substances. The boy's dog
>had died "suddenly and unexpectedly" a few hours before.
>Three more people with similar symptoms were taken to the
>Keila hospital.
>     The Mustamae children's hospital told BNS this morning
>the boy's life was not in danger.
>     A group of Rescue Department specialists that arrived
>in the village late last night located the source of
>radiation in a private house.
>     Measurements showed that the level of radiation
>amounted to five milliroentgens per hour at a distance of
>five meters from the house, but exceeded 100 roentgens per
>hour in the kitchen, Rescue Department spokesman Uno
>Maasikas told BNS.
>     A radiation dose exceeding 200 roentgens per hour is
>fatal. It means that a stay of two hours in a room where
>radiation reached 100 roentgens per hour would most
>probably end in death. 
>     It is not known whether any of the hospitalized people
>had stayed in the house.
>     The rescuers and the police decided to evacuate people
>from nearby houses. By Friday morning, 20 people had been
>evacuated.
>     The Kiisa village, where many people have their summer
>cottages, has about 350 permanent residents.
>     The police have by now found out that the hospitalized
>boy's father had in October obtained some barrels
>containing a mysterious liquid, which he emptied out before
>taking the barrels home. The boy is supposed to have been
>in contact with the liquid. 
> 
>     Maasikas told BNS, however, that no radiation was
>discovered in the place where the man emptied the barrels
>and it is thought the liquid was not radioactive. It is not
>known as yet what causes the strong radiation in the
>kitchen of the house. Rescue department specialists believe
>it might be a piece of strongly radioactive metal.
>     This would be not the first case when radioactive
>substances have been discovered in the possession of
>Estonian residents. In August the Defense Police
>confiscated almost three kilograms of uranium oxide
>smuggled out of Russia from a man in the southeastern town
>of Polva. Radioactive metal was discovered also at a
>storage yard of the Eesti Metallieksport (Estonian Metal
>Export) company.
>
>
>
>   Estonian radiation victim in serious condition
>   
>   TALLINN, Nov 21 (AFP) - A teenaged boy and three of his 
>relatives were being treated for radiation sickness here Monday, 
>with the boy's condition described as serious but not critical, the 
>Tallinn Children's Hospital said.
>   The boy, his mother, uncle and grandmother were hospitalized 
>late Thursday after the 13-year-old boy touched a tiny piece of 
>what was believed to be highly-radioactive Cesium in the village of 
>Kiisa, 25 kilometres (15 miles) from Tallinn.
>   Investigators suspected that radiation was also to blame for 
>the father's death in early November.
>   Authorities evacuated 40 people from Kiisa after the accident 
>was discovered Thursday. The family dog was discovered dead hours 
>earlier.
>   Merika Martinson, head doctor at the Tallinn children's 
>hospital, said the boy, whose family name was not released, was 
>suffering from burned fingers and leukocitis, a dangerous 
>accumulation of white cells in the blood.
>   Blood samples were sent to Stockholm Monday for further studies.
>   Rescue services traced the source of the radiation in Kiisa to 
>beneath a kitchen in a local house where the intensity of 
>radioactive emissions was measured at 120 Roentgen per hour, Baltic 
>News Service said. A dose of 200 Roentgen can kill.
>   Rescue services head Uno Maasikas said two hours spent in the 
>kitchen, where the Roentgen count was 100, could have been fatal.
>   Investigators said the source of the radiation was a metal bar 
>five centimetres (two inches) in length, two centimetres in width, 
>that was found lying in a tool box in the kitchen.
>   The metal was "probably radioactive cesium," said the rescue 
>services.
>   Initial reports said that the deceased father may have found 
>the lethal scrap of metal in a radioactive dump in Saku, between 
>Tallinn and Kiisa.
>   The boy and his grandmother were probably most affected, said 
>an investigator, who asked not to be named.
>   The radioactive source has been removed by emergency services 
>and the evacuees allowed to return. "There is no residual 
>radioactivity," said Teep Konts, a nuclear expert at the Estonian 
>rescue services.
>
>
>regards,
>-- 
>
>Toomas Mo"lder                     phone (372 2) 459 478
>director,                          fax   (372 2) 453 334
>CIESIN Estonia                     E-mail: toomas@venus.nlib.ee
>URL http://www.nlib.ee/                    ciesin@venus.nlib.ee
>
>

Larry Laufman, Ed.D.
Baylor College of Medicine
One Baylor Plaza - SM 443
Houston, Texas 77030 USA
Email:  llaufman@bcm.tmc.edu
Tel:      (713) 798-5387
Fax:     (713) 798-3990