"CONTAMINATED" SHIPMENTS

[CCHOGAN@LIFE.UAMS.EDU]

This question is for the academic institution types...

We received a package of P-32 (

0.1 mCi) from a vendor who will remain unnamed
for now.  This package was shipped on dry ice and contained a microfuge tube
with the radioactive material in it.  The microfuge tube was wrapped in absorbent
paper and placed inside a lead "pig".  The lead pig was placed in a larger 
plastic container with a pop-on lid.  

The innermost container (the microfuge tube) had about 4000 cpm of removable
contamination (counted on LSC).  The contamination had NOT escaped the shipping
container or the lead pig.  When I called the vendor about the contamination on
the inner container, they said that it was to be expected that the inner
container would be contaminated and said that was standard procedure for their
shipments (this is our first shipment from this vendor).  I told them that in 
the last 5 or 6 years I have averaged a half-dozen packages a day received and
have only had a handful of packages that had this kind of problem.

My question is this...
Is this type of contamination considered acceptable at your institution?  I 
know that the inner container should be "assumed" to be contaminated and handled
as such, but is this considered acceptable to have this level of contamination 
on the inner vial?

Chris Hogan
cchogan@life.uams.edu    or chogan@colan.uams.edu

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