Thursday, 4:30 PM
Radioactive medical supplies pose no threat in Chelmsford, company and local officials say
By Ryan Haggerty, Globe Correspondent, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
CHELMSFORD -- The containers of radioactive medical supplies that tumbled off a pickup truck this morning during an accident on Route 3 do not pose a threat to the public or the environment, according a town official and a company spokesman.
Officials have recovered 17 of the 18 lunch-box size containers that fell off the truck and landed on a hillside and Stony Brook, a tributary to Freeman Lake. The containers hold single-dose syringes filed with a radioactive isotope that is used in MRIs and CAT scans to diagnose artery blockages, thyroid conditions, cancer, and more.
"At this point, there are no concerns about public health," said Paul Cohen, the Chelmsford town manager. "There's no threat to the water supply. Nobody is wearing hazardous material suits, and nobody has been evacuated."
At about 4:10 a.m., a pickup truck driven by Steven P. Sekenski north on Route 3 rolled over and spilled the containers. Sekenski, 26, who was not injured, was delivering the containers for Cardinal Health, a medical supply company in Dublin, Ohio.
Jim Mazzola, a company spokesman, said in a telephone interview that the syringes are double sealed in metal or lead containers and pose no threat. "These are very, very small doses that are designed to be injected in the body," Mazzola said. "All of the containers that have been recovered have been sealed."
Each syringe is packaged in its own screw-top container made of lead or metal that is sealed tight, said Mazzola. Those metal or lead containers are then placed inside another container that is also sealed.
"We dispatched our radiation detection equipment [to the accident site], and we found no evidence of elevated radiation," Mazzola said.
