The following information was obtained from the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts via email:
Boston University Medical Center's (BUMC) Radiation Safety Officer (RSO) reported by telephone to the Massachusetts Radiation Control Program (MA RCP) on 9/23/2014 that a shipment of Iridium-192, in the form of brachytherapy sealed sources containing approximately 10 curies, was delivered by [the shipping company] to the wrong address, a non-BUMC address at [redacted], Boston, MA on 9/8/2014.
The RSO reported that the package, a yellow III package, was accepted by a mail room employee of the non-BUMC address on 9/8/2014; that BUMC was contacted on 9/8/2014; and that BUMC transferred the package to BUMC less than one hour after the package was delivered to the wrong address.
The RSO reported that BUMC is conducting an investigation and attempting to contact [the shipping company] and that all radioactive materials that were supposed to have been in the package were accounted for.
The MA RCP plans to perform inspection upon this event. This event is considered by MA RCP to be open.
THIS MATERIAL EVENT CONTAINS A "CATEGORY 3" LEVEL OF RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL
Category 3 sources, if not safely managed or securely protected, could cause permanent injury to a person who handled them, or were otherwise in contact with them, for some hours. It could possibly - although it is unlikely - be fatal to be close to this amount of unshielded radioactive material for a period of days to weeks. These sources are typically used in practices such as fixed industrial gauges involving high activity sources (for example: level gauges, dredger gauges, conveyor gauges and spinning pipe gauges) and well logging. For additional information go to http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1227_web.pdf
Note: This device is assigned an
IAEA Category 3 value based on the actual radioactivity of the source, not on the device type. (Reference
IAEA RG-G-1.9)