Re[2]: NIH

[sandy_perle@email.fpl.com]

     This is the article from the Washington Post if you have not seen it:
     
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     WASHINGTON (Oct 11, 1995 - 10:42 EDT) -- A criminal investigation is 
     underway to determine how a pregnant researcher at the National 
     Institutes of Health
     was poisoned last summer with a radioactive isotope.
     
     NIH officials say the contamination by a radioactive isotope called 
     P-32, was "apparently deliberate." The radioactive material was found 
     in a kitchen and a water
     cooler.
     
     Dr. Maryann Ma, a postdoctoral researcher in a cancer lab at NIH, said 
     at a news conference Tuesday that she was "contaminated on purpose by 
     someone at NIH."
     
     She contended that the contamination occurred after her NIH supervisor 
     tried to persuade her and her husband to abort their baby because the 
     maternity would
     interfere with their research project. Ma said she became pregnant 
     last April.
     
     She also charged that doctors at the federal health agency then failed 
     to give her proper treatment for internal radiation poisoning.
     
     "After it was confirmed that I was contaminated, NIH did not give me 
     any treatment," she said. "NIH also failed to suggest any necessary 
     actions or treatment to
     effectively lower the contamination I had received."
     
     NIH spokesman Thomas Flavin said Ma was one of 27 people affected at 
     the NIH. She was the only person treated at a hospital for the 
     radioactive contamination,
     and Flavin said that medical personnel treating her "feel that the 
     treatment was appropriate."
     
     After a few hours of hospital treatment, Ma was sent home, but she 
     said that she then spent hours vomiting.
     
     Flavin said the FBI and the security section of the NIH are conducting 
     a criminal investigation of the incident.
     
     P-32 is an isotope commonly used in biological research, and radiation 
     experts said it poses a serious hazard only if it is ingested.
     
     Ma and her husband, Dr. Bill Wenling Zheng, are both visiting 
     scientists from China. They are employed at the NIH under a two-year 
     study grant, but said they
     currently are on paid administrative leave. Flavin, however, said they 
     have been assigned to another NIH lab outside of the National Cancer 
     Institute.
     
     Both Ma and her husband have filed petitions with the Nuclear 
     Regulatory Commission asking that the radioactive materials license of 
     the NIH be revoked. They
     claim the agency fails to adequately control and secure radioactive 
     materials.
     
     Their lawyer, Lynne Bernabei, said the NIH routinely violates 
     radioactive materials handling regulations enforced by the NRC by 
     leaving the materials in unsecured
     refrigerators and in other unguarded storage sites.
     
     Diane Screnci, spokeswoman for the NRC, said that her agency received 
     the petition Tuesday and that it was being reviewed. She said the NRC 
     will decide what
     action, if any, to take within about two months.
     
     An NRC team conducted a special inspection of the NIH after the 
     contamination incident reported by Ma. Screnci said, "We found that 
     the agency was in
     compliance and that their workers and the public were safely 
     protected."
     
     She said that the NIH took measures recommended by the NRC and that 
     inspectors found the health agency's inventory control "was 
     excellent."
     
     Ma contended at the news conference that the contamination took place 
     after her NIH supervisor, Dr. John N. Weinstein, urged her to abort 
     the baby to allow the
     research project she and her husband were working on to continue.
     
     An attorney for Weinstein told The Washington Post that the researcher 
     "categorically denies" that he urged Ma to abort her pregnancy.
     
     Bernabei said that an independent assessment of Ma's radioactive 
     contamination concluded that she was exposed to 18 times the 
     recommended maximum dosage for
     pregnant women and that unborn baby was exposed to 12 times the 
     recommended dosage.
     
     However, the lawyer said the pregnancy appears to be proceeding        
     normally


Sandy Perle
Supervisor Health Physics
Florida Power and Light Company
Nuclear Division

(407) 694-4219 Office
(407) 694-3706 Fax

sandy_perle@email.fpl.com