The Commonwealth of
Virginia submitted the following information via facsimile:
On Monday July 30th, the VRPM [Virginia Radioactive Materials Program] was notified by the Maryland Radiation Program that SteriCycle's monitor detected radiation from a Bio box picked up at INOVA Fairfax Hospital. RSO, Inc. of Maryland performed a radiation survey with the highest reading of 0.7 mrem/hr on contact. They also performed radioisotope identification with a Bicron Fieldspec which indicated I-125. The Bio box was returned to INOVA Fairfax Hospital on August 1st where it was examined by Radiation Safety staff. A red bag of infectious waste containing one I-125 seed was discovered. The seed was assayed using a well-counter which indicated it to be 0.22 mCi. INOVA Fairfax decay corrected this activity to the normal seed activity of 0.28 mCi, which indicated it was implanted on July 10th. A review of patient implants for July 10th is being performed and staff involved are being interviewed.
Media attention: none.
VA Event Report ID No.: VA-12-04
THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A "LESS THAN CAT 3" LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
Sources that are "Less than
IAEA Category 3 sources," are either sources that are very unlikely to cause permanent injury to individuals or contain a very small amount of radioactive material that would not cause any permanent injury. Some of these sources, such as
moisture density gauges or thickness
gauges that are Category 4, the amount of unshielded radioactive material, if not safely managed or securely protected, could possibly - although it is unlikely - temporarily injure someone who handled it or were otherwise in contact with it, or who were close to it for a period of many weeks. For additional information go to
http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1227_web.pdf