The following report was received from the
Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) Radiological Health Program (RHP) via email:
On August 30, 2019, at 13:10 [EDT], the MDE-RHP was contacted by telephone by medical licensee, MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center nuclear medicine department (MD-05-032-01).
An order had been placed by the medical center's Biomedical Department through eBay for a mobile lead shield for a Co-57 flood reference source. Upon receipt of the mobile shield, a Co-57 flood source was discovered inside. Only the mobile shield was ordered. The flood source was identified as an Eckert & Ziegler Feather Lite model MED3709 (S/N 159-062), 10 mCi as of June 1, 2011. The current activity was calculated to be 4.61 microCuries at time of receipt. The medical center's Radiation Safety Officer was notified. The sealed source was leak tested and evaluated using a Capintec Captus 3000 well counter with an efficiency of 37 percent. The leak test result was less than 0.005 microCuries.
Eckert & Ziegler was contacted on August 30, 2019. The flood source was sold to Lower Oconne Community Hospital. The Co-57 flood source was originally shipped on April 20, 2011. The community hospital closed on February 14, 2014. The Georgia Radioactive Materials Program was contacted on August 30, 2019 at 1300 [EDT] with preliminary information concerning this sealed source. Georgia radioactive materials license No. 1389 for the community hospital was terminated June 2016.
MDE-RHP will further investigate this incident. Eckert & Ziegler will provide a Return Kit for disposal. The source is currently secured in a waste storage room at MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center.
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