UK Hospital fined £90,000 after losing radioactive substance that could be used in dirty bombs

Main Category: Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Article Date: 17 Apr 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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A hospital in the UK has lost a radioactive substance that could be used for a dirty bomb. The hospital has been fined £90,000 (about $160,000). In March 2001, London's Royal Free Hospital lost a rod of caesium 137. It is used to treat cancer.

Nobody noticed it had been lost until three months after it should have been returned to a locked store.

The hospital admitted guilt and pleaded guilty to seven offences under the Radioactive Substances Act of 1993, and also health and safety at work legislation. The hospital had to pay a fine of $45,000 and legal costs amounting to £45,619.

Environment Agency officer Adrian Bush said "Those entrusted with radioactive material have a great responsibility to manage and dispose of such potentially harmful substances appropriately. This case highlighted the trust's failure to protect its own staff and this court action could have been avoided had management implemented a proper training and handling regime."

(In the UK 'Trust' means, in this context, Hospital)

Apparently, the rod was thrown away in a plastic applicator with the clinical waste.

Experts say the rod would only be harmful if someone was in close contact with it for several hours.

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