New Delhi: One more person has been scalded
due to exposure to high radiation and is recuperating at a
private hospital in north-west Delhi, officials said today.
One Ajay Jain got exposed to radiation after he
unwittingly kept a Cobalt-60 pin in his pocket.
Jain has told investigators that he had received the pin
made of the radioactive isotope from Deepak Jain, the scrap
dealer from whose shop eight bunches of metal scrap containing
sources of Cobalt-60 were found last week in Mayapuri area.
Ajay Jain was admitted to Max Hospital in Pitampura
locality two days ago after he found that his back had turned
black, officials said adding that the his family members were
also being screened for possible exposure to radiation.
"He has no symptoms of radiation exposure anymore. He was
brought to us with patches in the skin and burn injuries in
the back on April 10," a doctor attending on him said.
The source of the radiation, a 3.8-cm long and two-mm
diameter Cobalt-60 pin, has been retrieved and isolated by
experts from the National Disaster Management Authority, they
said.
Meanwhile, twelve people, including
policemen and other residents of Mayapuri area in west Delhi,
were today sent to the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and
Allied Sciences here to undergo some investigations to detect
whether they had been exposed to radiation.
Seven persons were earlier hospitalised with burn injuries
caused due to radiation. Two of the seven victims of radiation
exposure continued to remain serious even after one week of
admission to different hospitals in the city.
All victims of radiation are under close monitoring by a
team of experts from the Departments of Medicine, Medical
Oncology, Radiological Oncology and Haematology under the
overall coordination of Dr A B Dey.
Experts said that the source of radiation was as strong
as the one found in the Mayapuri scrap market last week.
Ten sources of Cobalt-60 had been recovered from the
Mayapuri scrap market earlier and seven persons were
hospitalised with burn injuries caused due to radiation.
Govt asks all 12 major ports to install radioactive detectors
The government has asked all 12
major state-owned ports to install advanced radioactive
material detectors to prevent hazardous materials from being
shipped into the country.
"The Shipping Ministry has issued letters to all major
ports to immediately assess the requirement for the number of
radioactive material detectors at each major port and get it
installed. Six major ports are likely to be equipped with it
in six months, while the remaining will have it by March,
2012," a senior Shipping Ministry official told PTI.
"Unfortunately, barring two scanners at Jawaharlal Nehru
Port Trust (JNPT), all ports lack scanners, which makes it
extremely difficult to check the container traffic. The Home
Ministry had also reviewed the situation, while we are in
touch with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre too," the
official said.
All ports have been asked to make budgetary provisions
for procuring the radiation detectors. The ministry has asked
the ECIL to make a demonstration of the equipment soon, the
official said.
A prototype of the gadget has already been installed at
the Nava Sheva port in Mumbai and once installed, the
detectors will play a pivotal role in security, as they will
scan cargo stacked within steel containers.
Asked about the cost of the gadgets, the official said a
primary detector can cost anything between Rs 40 lakh and Rs
50 lakh, adding that apart from these, there were handheld
secondary and tertiary gadgets for radiation detection.
The total cost of installing the detectors, he said,
would be estimated after the ports conducted their own
assessment, which was likely to be done soon. The Electronics
Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL) was about to make a
presentation of its own before the ministry soon, he added.
A lot of container traffic, sources said, goes unexamined
at major ports -- Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust,
Kolkata (with Haldia), Chennai, Visakhapatanam, Cochin,
Paradip, New Mangalore, Marmagao, Ennore, Tuticorin and
Kandla.
These ports handled 560.68 million tonnes of cargo in the
just-concluded fiscal, including 102 MT of iron ore.
The cargo handled in 2008-09 was 530.35 MT.
-PTI
