Mre on cobalt 60 theft..

[The Natural Philosopher]

Oh look, they haven't got radiation poisoning..after all ;-)

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Six suspects, apparently unharmed, have been arrested following the theft of a truck carrying a medical radioactive source in Mexico. The source was later found but had been removed from its container.

A truck transporting a teletherapy device containing a cobalt-60 (Co-60) source from a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana to a radioactive waste storage facility was stolen in Tepojaco near Mexico City on 2 December. Mexico's National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards (Comision Nacional de Seguridad Nuclear y Salvaguardias, CNSNS) informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that the source was properly shielded at the time the truck was taken.

Two days later, the CNSNS reported that police had found the truck in a field near the town of Hueypoxtla, not far from where it had been stolen. However, the Co-60 source had been taken out of the cancer treatment device and removed from its protective shielding. It said that the source itself appeared undamaged.

The Co-60 source, with an activity of 111 terabequerels, represented a serious risk to people handling it, the IAEA said. Anyone handling it or coming into contact with it for more than a few minutes could face permanent injury. Being close to the unshielded source for between a few minutes and up to an hour would probably be fatal.

Six men, aged between 16 and 38, have now been arrested by police on suspicion of stealing the vehicle and were taken to hospital for medical checks. However, none of the suspects appeared to be suffering from the effects of high radiation exposure.

Produced in nuclear reactors, cobalt-60 is an energetic gamma emitter that is used for the sterilization of medical equipment, external irradiation in cancer treatment (teletherapy), industrial radiography and to measure density or thickness.

[Tim+]

More or less a repeat of what Andy Burns posted two days ago.

First reply to your own message!

Tim

[Chris Hogg]

Seems rather pointless looking for anyone for that theft, if what they're saying about the hazards of that source are anything like correct. The pikeys who nicked it won't live long enough to get to trial anyway.

[Martin Brown]

They may well have shortened their lifespan by years, but if they haven't shown up in an ER with radiation sickness by now they managed to avoid acute radiation sickness. Those sources are seriously nasty when exposed. Oil workers handle similar bad things on very long tongs.

There have been previous similar cases of medical Co60 sources which only showed up after the stuff had been resmelted as scrap into rebar.

I expect this is one of those rare cases where the punishment is the crime a bit like the morons who cut into a live 40kV transformer feed.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Carbon copy of a similar theft in Mexico 20 or 30 years ago.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Actually quite unlikely.

I was offered radiotherapy (basically being blasted by cobalt 60 enough to burn the skin) and the doctors said '30% INCREASED chance of unrelated cancer in 15 years'

Now since the chance of unrelated cancer is probably no better than 1% anyway, its not a huge extra risk.

And that is from exposure that results in immediate and obvious radiation burns. And is DESIGNED to do genetic damage to cancer cells

The more I read up on radiation the less it bothers me.

I think that unless they cut the source out and rammed it up each others arses, they will be fine. A Mexican jail will be far worse for their health.

[mcp]

For radiotherapy the source is shielded to produce a tight beam which is carefully directed at the area to be treated. If you take it out of the shield you are getting a much greater dose over your entire body.

[Brian Gaff]

So how can they actually know if any damage has been done. The effect might not show itself for some time, or lead to an increased risk of cancer or other issues further down the road if dna has beendamaged.

Brian

[Martin Brown]

They can't. That is why you wear a film badge when on a nuclear site.

They would show something not unlike sunburn if they had got acute radiation damage to skin, but hard gamma radiation ~1MeV is penetrating and still capable of ionising atoms along its path. It is likely that they will have shortened their life expectancy somewhat by doing this.

It will only show up when cells with damaged DNA have had time to act. The body's defence mechanism will delete most defects and trigger cell death in any that it can recognise as defective.

[Peter Parry]

Long term effects can't easily be predicted without any idea of the dose absorbed. However, with a source of the type mentioned the radiation dose could easily be high enough to produce the effects of acute radiation syndrome within a short time.

[Dave Liquorice]

These Co60 sources are *VERY* active and powerful gamma emmiters. Tissue damage is major and relatively quick, get in the way of the beam for a minute or two and you will have a physical "burn". They are after all designed to kill (cancer) cells.

Possibly to probably but very difficult to put any figures on it. The body has mechanisiums for dealing with radiation and will self heal to some extent. Remember that the cell/body chemistry has evolved in a radioactive enviroment.