Colorado News
For those who travel and live in the Grand Valley,
HAZMAT in USA on Friday, 17 May, 2013 at 04:58 (04:58 AM) UTC.
| Description |
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Public health officials are trying to determine who threw away a
small source of radioactive material somewhere in the Grand Valley in
western Colorado. |
They are worried people who came in contact with a
small piece of Radium-226 may have been exposed to dangerously high
doses of radiation. The material was found when the radiation tripped an
alarm as a city trash truck entered the Mesa County Solid Facility on
April 24. Radium-226 emits twice as much radiation in one hour as the
safe exposure limit set for it in an entire year. If a person was
exposed to the Radium-226 source for 15 hours in one year it could pose a
chronic health risk, according to health officials. Steve Tarlton,
manager of radiation programs for the state Health Department, said
Thursday radium has been collected and studied for more than a century,
and many people who collected it may not be aware it could be dangerous.
He said the primary danger is from exposure to people who came in
contact with it, and there is little danger of it spreading.
"These are very dangerous radiation levels, but the main concern is not
for the general public. It is for the individual who was in possession
of the material before it was discovered by the city. We want to talk to
whoever disposed of this material so we can learn more about the
person's potential exposure and others who might have been exposed. We
also want to confirm whether or not other hazardous materials remain in
that person's home or office," said Dr. Christopher Urbina, executive
director and chief medical officer of the Colorado Health Department.
Tarlton said many landfills have set up detectors at their gates to
detect radioactive materials, but it's up to local governments to decide
what levels of radiation they will accept. Environmental groups did not
return phone calls Thursday seeking comment. |
| The small metal piece that
was found is about the size of a small piece of candy. The radium was
found in a piece of folded tape that may have been inside a PVC pipe
labeled "Source." The pipe was about three inches in diameter and a foot
to a foot and a half long.
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