Slashdot Mirror
FedEx Misplaces Radioactive Rods
Hugh Pickens writes "A shipment of radioactive rods used in medical equipment has vanished while being sent by FedEx from North Dakota to Tennessee. Based on tracking information, FedEx is focusing its search in the Tennessee area, but as a normal precaution the company alerted all of its stations 'in the event that it got waylaid and went to another station by accident.' Dr. Marc Siegel says if someone opens the container it could pose some serious health risks. 'I don't believe it has the degree of radiation that, if it were opened, your skin would suddenly slough off. But the concern would be, if this got opened inadvertently and someone didn't know what it was and then was repeatedly exposed to it over several days, it could cause a problem with radiation poisoning,' says Siegel. 'The people that use this equipment in a hospital use protective shielding with it.' The lesson is that active medical material must always be transported in a way that ensures the general public cannot get access to it. 'Medical devices should not be FedExed. They should be sent under a special service,' adds Siegel."
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"The lesson is that active medical material must always be transported in a way that ensures the general public cannot get access to it."
How about adding 'active radioactive material' to that list?
I cannot believe someone thought it was a good idea to FedEx radioactive material. Someone needs to be fired.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
But I did get this box of great door props the other day from Fedex.
Just jammed the rod right under the door at the office, works like a charm.
TFA clearly states that the rods were located and its radioactive container was not opened.
"The rods were incased in a metal container called a "pig" that contains their radiation. Munoz said when they were recovered at the Knoxville station Friday no one had opened that casing."
"Everything's fine, the pig itself was not opened, and we're making arrangements to deliver it to the recipient," Munoz said.
Big surprise... lost in Tennessee. As a TN resident i can say that not only FedEx but UPS and the USPS havent a clue here
Man, I thought it was bad when the Canada Post delivery guy was stealing my review copies of video games from Activision.
The article linked actually says they already found them. What is with these craptastic and sensationalist titles today?
If it glows, it goes.
FedEx CEO gets called in the middle of the night.
"Yeah, uh, boss..."
"*Yawn* Just spit it out, man."
"It's about the rods, sir."
"The rods?"
"The radioactive rods, sir."
"What %$^&ing idiot would send radioactive rods through FedEx, anyway? So, what about the radioactive rods?"
"S-sir... We lost them, sir."
"%$^&."
According to TFA the rods have now been recovered, unopened at a FedEx facility in Knoxville. Panic over.
This is a substitute for a clever sig that fits within the maximum number of characters.
How is this funny? Does it amuse you? Funny how? How the fuck is this funny?
I always ship my radioactive rods Media Mail to save $$$$$...
This is a non-story. FedEx actually handles a LOT of radio-active material and the only people at any level of risk are the crew on long flights. Quit whining, grow a pair of testicles, and realize that just because it's "radioactive" doesn't mean the world is going to end if someone looks at it wrong. Oh, and learn how to package your shipments properly so that the address and airway bill don't fall off. Then you won't have to get yelled at by your boss and then shuffle the blame onto the delivery company.
There are some incompetent fools in this story (and not just the editors!), but they don't work at FedEx.
This is supposed to be "News for Nerds" - so why link to a Fox News article with almost no technical information whatsoever? For example: what nuclide was involved? How high was the activity?
After some searching on Google News, I found this article. Apparently, it was 684 MBq of Germanium (which should mean it's 76Ge). Unfortunately, that isotope is not in any of my data sheets, so I can't tell you what that means in terms of dose rate...
Just last week we shipped some laptops from one work location to another, and had to go through the process of getting proper package labeling due to the lithium ion batteries being contained inside. After getting everything labeled per their regulations, FedEx rejected and returned the shipment because there were two parentheses missing in the shipping label text. We added the two parentheses and it shipped fine.
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
" 'Medical devices should not be FedExed. They should be sent under a special service,' adds Siegel."
What a chickensh*t dick! He wants us to pay a HUGE price supplement for any shipment of anything marked 'medical equipment'. After all, he's not paying for it.
So instead of a shipment of a case of wooden tongue depressers being sent for $25 it will cost $350 because it is marked 'medical equipment'. You know this will happen.
If something is delicate or harmful_if_opened then just F*CKING mark it so when shipped. It doesn't matter if it's nuclear fuel rods or one-drop-kills-the-whole-block snake venom or whatever. Give it a 'special' tracking number. Mark the package in bright orange stickers written in English and Spanish "Don't open this package, nitwit! because you could die and take out the people around you also." Make sure that you don't lose it. You are a global shipping company: you're supposed to know what you're doing.
Warn people about the consequences about being stupid, and, having warned them, refuse to accept any responsibility for the bad things that happen when people ignore your warning.
By the way, if something is labeled -Dangerous!- -Hazard!- -Caution!- don't tell me that you're not to blame for messing with it because the label was in English and you only speak Spanish or whatever. Learn a few English words like 'caution' 'danger' 'warning'. It will serve you better than learning words like 'pussy' or 'Burger King'.
I'm assuming that the contents should be labeled as radioactive, and that should eliminate the problem of an unsuspecting person getting a large dose of radiation from playing with the contents of the box.
Actually at the time this story was submitted, the rods had not been located.
The story was updated on the Fox News Site after the rods were found but they kept the original URL.
Here is the cached version of the story at the time it was submitted as a story to Slashdot.
http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=radioactive+rods+fox+news&d=1094018597270&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=d977f9e4,d2527ef2
FedEx Searching for Radioactive Shipment That Vanished Between N.D. and Tenn.
By Diane Macedo
Published November 26, 2010
| FoxNews.com
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - FedEx reports that a shipment of radioactive rods used in medical equipment has vanished while being sent from North Dakota to Tennessee.
FedEx spokeswoman Sandra Munoz says the rods, which are used for quality control in CT scans, were being returned to their manufacturer in Knoxville, Tenn., from a hospital in Fargo, N.D. Three shipments left the hospital earlier this week, but only two arrived at their destination.
"We're looking for that third one," Munoz told FoxNews.com.
Based on tracking information, FedEx is focusing its search in the Tennessee area, Munoz said, but as a normal precaution the company alerted all of its stations "in the event that it got way late and went to another station by accident."
The rods are incased in a metal container called a pig that Munoz says is roughly 10 inches tall and weighs about 20 pounds.
"As long as people do not try to open the metal container they will not be exposed to any remaining radiation," she said.
But Fox News Medical Contributor Dr. Marc Siegel says if someone does open the container it could pose some serious health risks.
"I don't believe it has the degree of radiation that, if it were opened, your skin would suddenly slop off. But the concern would be, if this got opened inadvertently and someone didn't know what it was and then was repeatedly exposed to it over several days, it could cause a problem with radiation poisoning," Siegel said. "The people that use this equipment in a hospital use protective shielding with it."
The lesson here, he says, is that active medical material must always be transported in a way that ensures that the general public cannot get access to it.
"Medical devices should not be FedEx'ed. They should be sent under a special service," Siegel said. "There are courier services and several other ways to do that without getting into the general pool. I think that was a mistake that's not generally the way medical supplies are sent.
"If FedEx wants to be involved in transporting medical materials, it should be completely separate and with all kinds of checks and balances so this can't happen," he added.
Munoz says FedEx follows a series of regulations when transporting objects like the rods in this shipment. This was no exception.
"There are regulations on how this type of equipment has to be packaged, the quantities that can be shipped, and we were all within the regulatory requirements," she said.
I know where the are - the TSA just found them in Taco's anus!
A lantern mantle is slightly radioactive as well, but nobody is terribly concerned when they're lost in shipping. The question becomes "how radioactive?".
The article references some Fox News paid commentator who's an internist, not a radiologists or CT scan technician who said "I don't believe it has the degree of radiation that, if it were opened, your skin would suddenly slop off". But then goes on to speculate about the potential for radiation poisoning. Given his qualifications and degree of confidence, it would be foolish to draw any conclusions about the safety of shipping these things via FedEx.
I had a nuclear scan scheduled for a week after the 9/11 attack. I suddenly started getting one or two calls a day from the medical center... it's off, it might be a week out, it might be two weeks out, we don't know... hey, come in your scheduled time, we just got a trickle of material, and we can do 8 or 9 tests.
the issue is, of course, the planes weren't flying. the special courier services weren't allowed to operate. the FedEx and UPS planes weren't allowed to operate. it's too far to drive the material. they finally found two containers of material at a distributor ten miles away that was to go out of activity tolerance in a day and a half.
a shipping container for, let's say for the sake of not spilling the beans, under a dozen doses, has three layers of radioactive protection. there are two layers of spillproof/shatterproof for both the short-lived nucleotide and the source that creates it from another short-lived nucleotide.
so, just as drunken truck drivers can move classified "special weaponry" across the country routinely, as we read earlier this week, certain amounts of radiostuff packed to standard X can be shipped per courier flight. not enough to wipe out a city, a little more than you are allowed without a higher-tier inspection system.
but do be advised it's not good stuff to keep around as a curiousity.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Emphasis addeded. I suppose they do that en case the package falls into the hands of innocent children?
A superficial google search reveals that FedEx requires special labeling for all radioactive materials and special packaging for some. But I'm sure they thank slashdotters for the suggestion.
Did they sent it Smartpost? That's the best way to lose a package. From Dallas to Chicago to Los Angeles to San Francisco to Ogden to Los Angeles to San Diego to Los Angeles and out for delivery. Maybe.
Because it's very rare for them to lose anything -- the boxes get there and still have the corners intact, unlike UPS (I don't have stock in either company, but my own company ships and is shipped to a lot, fedex creams ups, pure and simple). Since we weren't told what it was, maybe it was nothing hotter than a lamp mantle (the old kind, the new ones aren't radioactive at all). Surely it wasn't a therapeutic amount of Co60 or something, or the pig would have been hundreds of pounds to stop the hot gammas. You know how that is -- OMG, it's radioactive! -- probably about 1/10th as much as the face of an old big ben clock (which actually can make you sick, eventually) or a few smoke detectors. In other words, as some one who works with radioactive stuff, without a lot more info, there's nothing to see here, move on.
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
The real problem is illustrated by all the videos of teenagers whacking each other with fluorescent bulbs across the back, till they bleed of shattered glass, just so that they can get featured on Break.com. Clearly radioactive rods are next.
Just fill the medical kits at all of the stations with Rad-X and Rad-away and you're golden.
I don't think anyone really gives a damn about nuclear health risks. If they did, this would have caused an uproar:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1295/is_n10_v62/ai_21200692/
When I first read this, I thought it was bunk. Then I started checking and found that a real business was developing for nuclear scanners in the steel industry. Radioactive scrap metal is so pervasive that large companies buying castings routinely scan the castings that they buy.
You may not get a high dose from a short exposure, but would you want the sleep on a bed made from this stuff? When we sell it to China, it can come back in any form.
... some dumbasses from FedEx delivered me radioactive rods, instead of blood diamonds. The Princess was not amused, and said that a necklace of radioactive rods would not get her a place on Dancing with the Stars!
The royal physician snooped around with his Geiger counter, before screaming "Holy fucking shit! Jesus fucking Christ!" He then proceeded to get his hairy ass out of the Royal Quarters.
If anyone is interested in buying radioactive bars, please send me your bank account IDs, passwords, and anything else that you shouldn't send to strangers.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
so, just as drunken truck drivers can move classified "special weaponry" across the country routinely, as we read earlier this week,
The agents in question were never driving drunk, with or without the nuclear materials. There were two incidents (in the agency's entire history, reportedly) where *some* agents got completely hammered and the cops were called on them. They were not drunk while transporting the materials.
Please help metamoderate.
Most major shipping outfits provide special services for hazardous materials as well as temperature sensitive items.
As anyone searching for "Goiania 1986 Cesium" can note, one of the more serious radioactive accidents ever to take place in the World was due to Cesium used for medical purposes from an X-ray machine
-><- no
Ra-di-a-tion! Yes, indeed. You hear the most outrageous lies about it. Half-baked goggle-box do-gooders telling everybody it's bad for you. Pernicious nonsense! Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year. They ought to have them, too.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
... this shipment of metal rods that seem always to be warm. Meanwhile, I'm wondering what happened to the inflatable sex doll I ordered.
Have gnu, will travel.
I've sent hazardous materials, some radioactive via a variety of carriers. LET ME TELL YOU that FedEx is much worse. They go blabbing all over the news making an embarrassing lot of fuss and generally alarming the public when they lose something like this. UPS however they just don't care. Lose a pound of plutonium, no big deal, happens all the time just fill in the insurance claim and go on your way and we certainly won't tell anyone.
So yes it is not sensible at all to use FedEx for these sorts of things. Way too much hassle.
And Neapolitano was about to recommend a through rectal probing of all the air passengers in the mid-west, searching for the hidden rod!
On their answering machine. True story... an acquaintance once received a package that was large, and low density, filled with a lot of foam peanuts. There were scuff marks on the top of the package, and the single layer of tape down the seam on top was not stuck to the cardboard. The package contained not only HIS goods, but also a much smaller package of heavy machine parts... FROM someone else, TO someone else. The smaller package had clearly fallen onto his, and had enough momentum to open the flap and fall inside, and the flap then sprang back. He called the courier, but they never got back to him.
Fedex; creating superheros since 1948.
no shit Sherlock.
Probably somebody planned to BBQ them...
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
well,
yet another example of companies and individuals trying to maximize their profit margins, usually at the expense of safety. it used to be that such materials were transported only by U.S.N.R.C. couriers. I guess that some manufacturers figured they'd save a few dollars in shipping. now we have a possible radiation hazard loose on the general public. at least they haven't started with dangerous biologics yet (or have they?).
Understanding is much like a 3-edged-sword. in this: there are always 2 sides and the truth.
Yeah, I see something like that on the intro to the Simpsons every week.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
What, exactly, is or was the big deal? Considering the huge number of shipments of radioactive medical and other material, I’m sure this isn’t the first time such a shipment by FedX or any other carrier that handles these has gone missing for awhile or permanently. One of my law professors at Vanderbilt in Nashville, not far from the AEC’s Oak Ridge facility at that time, surveyed various carriers about shipping various radioactive products. This was before FedX and UPS. Some said they would call the FBI if anything radioactive were shipped, no matter what it was. Some said “It’s a package, ain’t it?” I worked temporarily in the Dallas post office many years ago. We handled shipments of all kinds of medical things, including radioactive materials and whole blood in glass containers. I remember that well because, in the middle of the Christmas rush, one sack came in with a lot of post cards, an aircraft wheel assembly and tire, some medical equipment that could have been anything, and one smashed glass container of human blood which covered all of the rest of the contents. I didn’t have to deal with that mess but had to wonder what idiot put a glass container of blood and an aircraft tire and wheel assembly, etc., in the same nylon airmail bag. At a time when watches were very expensive, another sack arrived with a shipment from which the watches had been removed leaving only the boxes. Anybody properly trained to handle the radioactive material lost in this instance would have shipped it properly encased so that handling it under normally foreseeable circumstances, much less under proper conditions, would present no significant risk of exposure to harmful levels of radiation. It would also be clearly marked inside and out with the standard international radiation hazard symbol. There wouldn’t be much the average person could do with it, and the only radioactive stuff I have ever ingested, for a test, tasted even less appetizing than the rest of the hospital food. Barring a plane crash, I doubt that a missing package of this type would present any real risk. Now I am familiar with one noteworthy instance where medical equipment containing highly radioactive material somehow got sent to a Mexican junkyard and this got mixed with rebar reinforcing rods to be used in construction without anyone working with it realizing it was even there. Some of which were returned to the U. S. This was discovered when a truck carrying a load of tons of this radioactive rebar passed over a radiation detector at the edge of a facility used to dealing with nuclear weapons etc. But you wouldn’t normally see anything remotely like that much radioactive stuff in a shipment. I also read about a case where a bright student somehow ordered a series of containers of radioactive chemicals until he got caught with a potentially dangerous critical mass if he had the equipment to assemble a bomb after a review of purchases and shipments.. The fact is that countless packages of more or less radioactive stuff get shipped and stored every day. The fact that anyone considers one such FedX package going missing for awhile news testifies to the fact that this is rare and hardly a major risk. Our medical and other industries would grind to a halt without this, as the poster whose medical test was delayed by the grounding of U. S. aviation after 9/11 duly noted. I’m sure that some packages get misdirected, but how many people have been injured or killed as a result? Zero to single digits, probably. A lot of other substances get shipped routinely, too, and usually nobody is killed or seriously injured by them even in wrecks. On the other hand, federal figures indicate roughly 90,000 people a year die as a direct result of medication errors in U. S. hospitals, and we lose several times more teenagers, much less more people, every year in auto accidents, etc. than were killed in the 9/11 attack and all the other terrorist attacks on us.
Caution! Dangerous Chemicals!
Cuidado! Caramelo que es delicioso!
I do not speak Spanish, but your comment still did not look right, so off to Google Translate. ... I fell on the floor laughing.
Sure enough,
Dare I say mod-parent-funny.
Spanish- Atención! Productos químicos peligrosos!
French- Attention! Produits chimiques dangereux!
German- Achtung! Gefährliche Chemikalien!
I like Achtung, it's a fun word to say.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork