The following information was provided by the
New York State Department of Health (
NYSDOH) via email and phone:
The NYSDOH received a phone call from the Radiation Safety Officer (RSO) at 0953 EDT on May 31, 2024, reporting a stolen portable moisture/density gauge.
At approximately 0700 [on May 31, 2024,] an authorized user (AU) went to their vehicle and noticed that the back window was open and the vehicle was unlocked. The AU inspected the internal cab of the vehicle and did not notice anything missing and then drove to a job site. Upon arrival at the job site, the AU realized the gauge was stolen and called the RSO. The RSO instructed the AU to return to the the original location and called the police. The lock on the storage case was found broken, and the gauge was removed from the storage case.
Device information:
Device Make: Troxler
Device Model: 3430
Device Serial Number: 21150
Isotope: Am-241/Be (44 mCi) and Cs-137 (9 mCi)
NY Incident Number: 1488
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