6 hospitalized in Mexico for possible radiation poisoning
updated 4:08 PM EST, Fri December 6, 2013
Missing radioactive material found
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Radioactive material in a truck was stolen this week, then recovered
- Official tells state media five adults, one teen are in stable condition
- The 6 hospitalized had indirect contact with the radioactive material, he adds
- Other patients in the hospital aren't in danger, the official adds
The five adults and one
16-year-old had apparently come into contact with cobalt-60 about 12
hours after the truck containing it and medical equipment was stolen
Monday in Tepojaco, said Hidalgo state health official Jose Antonio
Copca, as reported by state-run Notimex.
A source in the Hidalgo
state government confirmed to CNN that six had been hospitalized for
presumed contact with cobalt-60, adding that they lived near where the
dangerous material was found.
All six were in stable condition at Pachuca General Hospital, according to Copca.
While the treatment for
possible radiation poisoning is considerable, given how it can damage
organs and cells, the state health official insisted that other patients
at the hospital are not in danger.
News of their hospitalizations first surfaced on Twitter.
It comes after Mexican
authorities announced they'd recovered all the radioactive material,
though it wasn't clear whether they'd also found those who stole it.
The missing vehicle,
along with most of the missing radioactive element used for medical
purposes, was located in a remote area about 40 kilometers (25 miles)
from where it was taken. All of the radioactive material had been
accounted for in that same area early Thursday evening.
Mexican authorities told
the International Atomic Energy Agency that the truck, which was
transporting the material from a hospital in Tijuana to a radioactive
waste storage center, was stolen Monday. Tepojaco is located some 55
kilometers north of Mexico City and 48 kilometers from Pachuca.
The container holding
the cobalt-60 was found about a kilometer (half a mile) from the truck
and had been opened, said Juan Eibenschutz Hartman, head of Mexico's
National Commission for Nuclear Security and Safeguards.
There was less than 40 grams (1.4 ounces) of the hazardous material inside the capsule.
Where are the thieves?
Authorities -- who have
said they expect that the thieves will turn up to get medical treatment
for possible radiation exposure -- have not announced explicitly that
anyone has been caught.
But the Notimex article
detailing the hospitalizations did state that a 25-year-old man and a
16-year-old man are in federal police custody. The report did not say
why they'd been detained, only that the Interior Ministry will soon have
more details.
Nor was there an
indication whether the two were among those hospitalized in Pachuca, the
capital of Hidalgo state. The Hidalgo government source declined to say
whether any of those being treated in his state's capital are suspects
in the criminal investigation.
Cleanup
Authorities are guarding
the area and have set up a 500-meter (550-yard) perimeter around it
near the city of Hueypoxtla, Eibenschutz said. They are evaluating
whether any residents were exposed, but none has tested positive for
radiation, according to the civil protection office.
Cleaning up the area
could take weeks, he said, because they don't have robotic equipment
they would need to quickly collect the dangerous cobalt. They're coming
up with a plan and considering asking for help from the International
Atomic Energy Agency, the United States or Canada.
An early theory is that the thieves were unaware of what exactly they had taken.
"At the time the truck
was stolen, the source was properly shielded," the IAEA said. "However,
the source could be extremely dangerous to a person if removed from the
shielding, or if it was damaged."
But Eibenschutz said the
truck wasn't properly set up to transport the radioactive material,
since it didn't have a GPS for tracking or other necessary equipment.
Uses for cobalt-60
Cobalt-60 is used in
radiotherapy and in industrial tools such as leveling devices and
thickness gauges. Large sources of cobalt-60 are used to sterilize
certain foods, as the gamma rays kill bacteria but don't damage the
product, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
If released into the environment, the radioactive material can harm people.
And experts consider cobalt-60 one of the "candidates" for making dirty bombs.
Bombs made with
cobalt-60 "pose a threat mainly because even a fraction of a gram emits a
huge number of high-energy gamma rays; such material is harmful whether
outside or inside the body," according to a 2011 report by the
Congressional Research Service.
In a speech last year,
the IAEA director warned that such a dirty bomb "detonated in a major
city could cause mass panic, as well as serious economic and
environmental consequences."
Preliminary information
suggests that the thieves did not know what the truck's cargo was when
they stole it, said Jaime Aguirre Gomez, deputy director of radiological
security at the National Commission for Nuclear Security and
Safeguards.
The shielding that
protects the cobalt-60 is designed so that the radioactive source is
difficult to extract, Aguirre said. The casing is designed not to be
opened or perforated easily.
The theft
The truck and its cargo
went missing early Monday after the driver of the white 2007 Volkswagen
truck and an assistant had stopped to rest at a gas station, local
prosecutor Marcos Morales said.
About 1 a.m. Monday, a
man armed with a handgun knocked on the passenger window. When the
passenger rolled down his window, the gunman demanded the keys to the
vehicle, Morales said.
Both the driver and his
assistant were taken to an empty lot where they were bound and told not
to move. They heard one of the assailants use a walkie-talkie type
device or phone to tell someone, "It's done," Morales said.
Mexico alerted the IAEA to the theft, following international protocol, Aguirre said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is assisting with the investigation into the stolen truck, Mexican authorities said.
The U.S. government has
sensors at border crossings and sea ports to prevent radioactive
materials from entering the country. This includes large stationary
sensors designed to scan vehicles going through land border crossings as
well as pager-size devices carried by agents.
Some of this equipment
is sensitive enough that it has been set off by people who had recently
undergone radiation therapy, according to a U.S. law-enforcement source.
According to the
Congressional Research Service report, in Thailand in 2000, a disused
cobalt-60 source was stored outdoors and bought by two scrap collectors,
who took it to a junkyard where it was cut open.
Some workers suffered
burn-like injuries, and eventually three people died and seven others
suffered radiation injuries, the report says. Nearly 2,000 others who
lived nearby were exposed to radiation.
CNN's Nick Parker and Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.
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