State of MD seeks to close local firm

["Jacobus, John (OD)" <JJacobus@exchange.nih.gov>]

Md. Lawyers Raise Health Concerns About Firm 
By Fern Shen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 16, 1999; Page B1 

Montgomery County residents who live closest to a company that produces
radioactive material receive nearly the maximum amount of radiation considered
safe by the federal government, the equivalent of eight chest X-rays a year,
attorneys for the Maryland Department of the Environment said yesterday. 

The attorneys raised the potential health concerns to bolster their arguments at
a hearing that the company, Neutron Products Inc. in Dickerson, ought to halt
its main operations immediately. 

In an affidavit, the state said that "even Neutron estimates that one of its
neighbors receives 86 to 93 millirems per year from Neutron, or 86 to 93 percent
of the limit. The average chest X-ray is between 10 and 20 millirems." 

But an attorney for the company, which manufactures radioactive materials for
medical and other equipment, said the state has never proved that the company
has endangered the lives of its employees or neighbors. 

"The exposure to any resident of Dickerson is equivalent to the dose received by
any resident of Denver or any average flight attendant," said James D.
Dalrymple, an attorney for Neutron, referring to the higher levels of radiation
naturally found at higher altitudes. 

Residents, about 100 to 150 in the general vicinity, have been battling the
company for years and have been joined by the state, whose regulators fined the
company for violating operating rules and then sought to have its main
operations shut down. 

Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Paul A. McGuckian said he will rule today
on the state's motion. The state is seeking both a preliminary and a permanent
injunction against Neutron to force it to stop the part of its operation that
produces the cobalt 60 used in commercial food irradiation and medical
equipment. 

Environmental officials are seeking the injunctions, they have said, primarily
because Neutron has not been able to provide the financial assurance that it has
the assets to cover the cost of properly removing radioactive material from the
plant should the need arise. State law requires Neutron to have set aside
$750,000 to cover the eventual costs of decommissioning. 

The state ordered Neutron in October to prove that it could meet this
requirement, and when the company could not do so by the April 13 deadline, the
Department of the Environment brought suit. 

M. Rosewin Sweeney, the assistant attorney general handling the case, noted that
Neutron owes money to creditors and the Internal Revenue Service and must still
pay to build a structure to cover a cobalt-60 melting operation. 

"There is no indication, in our lifetimes, that this company is going to be able
to provide us with that financial assurance," Sweeney said, arguing that state
taxpayers will wind up paying more to decommission the facility if more material
is stockpiled there. 

But Dalrymple said the company "has a plan" to allow it to generate enough funds
to provide the needed financial assets and said that the state's requested
injunction essentially would shut down the company. 

"If you strip them of their ability to operate ... you strip them of their
ability to do what the state wants them to do," he said. 

© 1999 The Washington Post Company 


-- John 

The above do not reflect my opinion or those of my spouse or employer.

John Jacobus, MS
Health Physicist
National Institutes of Health
Radiation Safety Branch, Building 21
21 Wilson Drive, MSC 6780
Bethesda, MD  20892-6780
Phone: 301-496-5774
Fax: 301-496-3544
jjacobus@exchange.nih.gov (W)
jenday@ix.netcom.com (H)
 
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