The following information was received from the State of
California via email:
On August 26, 2015, [Nordion] shipped three packages containing approximately 200 mCi of Yttrium-90 to Hoag Hospital by [a commercial shipping company]. One of the three packages did not arrive at Hoag Hospital. The Radiation Safety Officer (RSO) reported that [Nordion] was contacted on 8/27/15, to report that one of the three packages had not arrived. [Nordion] told the RSO that they reported this event to the Canadian authority and that [the commercial shipping company] was the responsible party since [Nordion] had turned the packages over to [the commercial shipping company] for shipping. The [commercial shipping company] health physics consultant contacted [California Department of Public Health/Radiologic Health Branch] CDPH/RHB on 9/11/15, (this was the first CDPH/RHB learned of this event) to report that a [commercial shipping company] investigation had identified that the missing package had fallen off of a conveyor belt in the [the commercial shipping company's] Costa Mesa, CA sorting facility and landed in a waste container. This information was identified by [the commercial shipping company] personnel review of video within their facilities. The package was not noticed to have fallen into the waste container, and the waste container was subsequently emptied into a larger trash receptacle by a cleaning crew. The larger trash receptacle was picked up for disposal at a local landfill. The half life of the Y-90 is 64 hours7.407407e-4 days <br />0.0178 hours <br />1.058201e-4 weeks <br />2.4352e-5 months <br />.
California report #091015
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