WHEN scrap dealer Deepak Jain and three of his workers tried to open the lead cover of a piece of metal scrap in their shop at Mayapuri, New Delhi, on April 8, they did not imagine that they were exposing themselves to cobalt-60, a radioactive metal. In minutes they had severe burns, black patches on skin and hair fall, and all of them complained of uneasiness. In hospital, it was diagnosed that their bone marrow levels and platelet counts were falling fast. Their condition continued to deteriorate.
Government agencies such as the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), which were alerted, found 10 other sources of Co-60 in the same market during investigation. One of the persons has since died. Parliament saw an uproar over the issue and questions were raised about the mechanisms available to monitor radioactive waste coming to the country. The government had said that the source of the isotope could be from outside the country.
Ravi Agarwal of Toxics Link, an environmental NGO, said, It is the absence of monitoring mechanisms. There are no monitoring agencies at all. With a rising metal scrap industry in India and increasing imports from the developed world, you never know when someone gets exposed to radiation. Investigations in the case have, however, revealed something more shocking: that the source of the Co-60 was not imported waste but a chemistry laboratory in Delhi University. We have traced the radioactive material to Delhi Universitys chemistry department. One of the pieces of equipment the scrap dealer bought was a gamma irradiator, said Sharad Agarwal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West).
Police sources said that the Co-60 in question was from a gamma irradiator, which the chemistry department used to conduct experiments for analysing the effect of gamma rays on chemicals. On February 26 this year, a university committee decided to sell it and a Mayapuri scrap dealer bought it through an auction, they said.
Since the waste industry is a highly specialised one, most of the scrap dealers deal with particular metals. In this case, as the police revealed, a scrap dealer, Harcharan Singh Bhola, bought the 3,000-kilogram apparatus from the university at Rs.1.5 lakh. Bhola, who is an iron dealer, separated the iron parts and sold the lead part to another dealer, Giriraj Gupta. Gupta got it further dismantled and sold the lead to some other dealers, including Deepak Jain, at whose shop the accident happened.
Deepak Paintal, the Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University, said: This apparatus was bought from Canada in 1968, and according to university record, it was used only till 1985. After this, it was lying unused in a room, sealed by the officials. He said the university was ready to compensate the victims of the accident and accepted responsibility. He also said that a committee would be formed to investigate the lapses.
However, critics feel that the chemistry department should not have sold the apparatus without ascertaining that the radioactive isotope in it had lost its potency.
The Vice-Chancellor said that there was the possibility of a miscalculation in determining the life of the isotope, as it should have lost its potency by 2010, considering the fact that it was bought in 1968. He also said that the isotope, however, turned out to be more dangerous than it was thought to be.
B.B. Bhattacharya, a member of the NDMA investigating the radioactive leakage, said that normally a radioactive source would need to finish at least 10 half-lives to lose its severity. However, the Co-60 in question had finished only eight.
Professor V.S. Parmar, head of the chemistry department, said: The person who was responsible for handling Co-60 in the lab retired more than 20 years ago. According to him, the retired professor, B.K. Sharma, was the only person in the department who was equipped to handle the gamma irradiator. After he left no one has used the instrument even once.
DCP Agarwal said that they had obtained the university registers, which clearly mentions the presence of Co-60 in the gamma irradiator. This makes it clear that this is a case of severe lapse on the part of the Delhi University authorities, who callously auctioned off a radioactive source.
A bigger question is whether the monitoring committee formed under the NDMA has managed to trace the other 10 sources of Co-60 and whether the 10 sources of Co-60 that were found in the combing operation after the accident are from the same gamma irradiator. None of the authorities could confirm the details regarding the other 10 sources that were found in the aftermath of the incident. In a metal scrap market like Mayapuri, metals are acquired both locally and through import. Without any monitoring mechanism, such incidents can happen anytime.
Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta
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