Cobalt 60 waste not from city hospitals

Radiation and health experts say the radioactive emission from cobalt 60 in West Delhi's Mayapuri was too high for it to have come from hospital waste.

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Neetu CHandRA

New Delhi

April 17, 2010

UPDATED: April 17, 2010 10:49 IST

Radiation and health experts say the radioactive emission from cobalt 60 in West Delhi's Mayapuri was too high for it to have come from hospital waste.

The scientists of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) believe the high radiation field and the shape of the source suggest the material was imported industrial waste.

The eight Cobalt-60 sources isolated by the scientists from the Mayapuri scrap market have strength of between 1000 R per hour and 20 R per hour.

Roentgen (R) is the unit of radiation exposure.

"In hospitals, a single source of cobalt is used of size 1.5 cms to two cms. The radioactive material used is a different type of isotope and not raw cobalt.

The 200R cobalt 60 used in hospitals do not match either 20R or 1,000R found here," said Munish Gairola, radiation oncologist and director of Shanti Mukund cancer centre.

"It is unlikely the cobalt 60 came from a hospital in Delhi. It definitely came to the city as part of imported industrial waste," said S. P. Aggarwal, former head of radiological safety division, Atomic Energy Research Board.

The scientists are still looking for the source after ruling out hospitals. "We haven't come to a conclusion so far. It seems to be an industrial waste," said Dr H. S. Kushwaha, director of health safety at BARC. The government has asked the Delhi Pollution Control Committee ( DPCC) to map all scrap markets in the city.

"We have asked the DPCC to carry out survey of all scrap markets and submit their report in a fortnight," chief secretary Rakesh Mehta said.

"We have been told to focus on four points -- quantity of scrap that enters Delhi, the sources, methods used to dismantle the scrap and measures we can take to ensure incidents like Mayapuri are not repeated," said a senior DPCC official.