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Re: More on Estonia Accident
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