[TheForge] Hellooooooo!

[Todd Rich]

On Mon, 8 May 2006, Bruce Freeman wrote:

> But that wasn't medical WASTE.
>
> That same sort of thing happened in Brazil, when some moron scrapped
> out a cobalt X-ray unit.  Scrap dealer broke it open and children
> painted themselves with the cobalt because it glowed so pretty!!!  (No
> joke.  Happened in the 80's I think.)  Needless to say, several people
> died.

You are conflating two different incidents.  The cobalt-60 source was from 
Mexico, and the cobalt got melted in with the scrap iron.  Some stuff is 
weird about that, because the guy who is said to have broken it open 
should have gotten a fatal dose, but didnt.

The painting incident was Cesium-137, which is a glowing powder.  See 
http://www.scienceteacherprogram.org/physics/Garcia00.html and start at 
Motivation.

>
> But that still wasn't medical WASTE.  That was a scrapped unit that
> should have been recycled through some radiation authority, but wasn't.
>
> Bruce
> NJ

The laws have changed since then.  The incidents came from units that were 
scrapped before the laws were changed.