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More radiation victims feared in India

Experts fear more affected by radiation in Mayapuri, The Times of India, Risha Chitlangia, TNN, Apr 11, 2010, NEW DELHI: Scientists from Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and experts from National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), along with Delhi Police, will launch a search operation to track down all the people who visited Deepak Jain’s shop in the past two weeks as they fear that more people had been affected by the radioactive waste.

“We are waiting for the patients to stabilise so that our teams can question them and trace people who work there or had visited the shop. Anybody who had visited the shop would have got exposed to gamma radiation. We need to trace everybody who had come in contact with the scrap,” Dr B Bhattacharjee, member of NDMA, said……
Experts said symptoms of radiation exposure vary depending on the duration of exposure and distance from the source (Cobalt 60). “If a person came to Jain’s shop and was sitting close to the source for a long duration, then he would have received a high dose of gamma radiation. Blackening of skin is an indicator,” said Dr Bhattacharjee.

This is the first time Delhi has been exposed to such a threat. But with extensive use of radiation-active material like Cobalt-60 in various industries, experts said scrap deals should install a radiation monitoring device in their shops. “The best way to avoid such a tragedy is to install radiation monitoring devices. These scrap dealers get material from various sources. They don’t know what are they dealing with. Gamma rays are the most harmful form of radiation as they have high penetrating power. Experts fear more affected by radiation in Mayapuri – The Times of India

April 12, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, India | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear wastes, radioactive