Part 4 of a special 4-part series
Hello!
If you’ve just clicked on this article, I strongly suggest you find Part 1 in this four part series and start there. You may be surprised…
If you’ve been keeping up with this series, by now you’ve learned a lot of things, and hopefully it’s cleared up your understanding of radiation.
We’ve discussed where radiation comes from, what kinds of radiation there are, where we can normally expect to find it, what measures it when we do, and some of the standards and benchmarks that people who deal with radiation on a daily basis use to determine the level of danger to them.
Now, let’s put it all together.
There are only two types of radiological incidents you can respond to: known and unknown. Since known incidents will be very few for you, let’s talk through that type first.
A known radiological incident for a Patrolman is most likely going to center around a traffic accident involving a vehicle carrying radioactive products. Every day, thousands of shipments of radioactive products travel the roadways of America. While a few are significant, like nuclear weapons and spent reactor fuel, the overwhelming bulk is small amounts of low activity products intended for medical, research and industrial use.
The more dangerous accident would actually involve the low activity products. The reason is very simple; as the activity increases, the amount of packaging increases. While something like a smoke detector (many contain small amounts of a radioactive product) might just be externally protected by a layer or two of cardboard, something very ‘active’ like spent fuel has to be transported in very regulated quantities, and in very special containers. These containers are exceptionally difficult to open, and resist burning, penetration, falls from bridges, being struck by trains and all kinds of other highly improbable incidents. Further, as the activity increases, the individual wrapper for each piece of radioactive material grows in toughness. For instance, while an Americium source may simply be applied to a small metal disk, a Cobalt source may be clad in a very hard steel, and be limited in size to a pellet the size of a 9mm round.
Responding to an accident involving radioactive products should be basically handled as responding to any other accident involving hazardous materials. Find the driver. Get the manifest from him, it will tell you specifically what is involved in the accident.
If you have a meter, use it. But don’t be preoccupied with taking readings on an accident where the cargo hasn’t been ejected. Even if the packaging inside the cargo area has been breached, distance and time will protect you just fine. The most serious issues would be if the cargo has been ejected, scattered and is on fire. Even if it is on fire, don’t allow that to keep you from rescuing passengers. Find a way to keep from breathing in the smoke, and go, just don’t hang around.
When you return to your safe spot, at least 300 yards back, don’t forget that you might have walked in product, and it may be on the soles of your shoes. Don’t get back in the car, don’t track it into stores and elsewhere. Find some bottled water, declare an area away from where your car is staged a decon point, and wash the dust off of your feet. If there is dust on your face and hands, wash it off, too. At any rate, refrain from drinking, or eating, or messing with your face until you have had someone with a meter check you for contamination. Remember, you’re not in trouble unless you go hug on the source and stay there, or lick it. This means, don’t chew on your pen, put someone’s driver’s license in your mouth (UGH - but I’ve seen it), or smoke.
Remember now, these measures are only if you HAVE to go in, and there has been product ejected and / or on fire. If the carrier is also carrying other toxics, as they often do, you must protect yourself to the greater hazard, which will be any other toxic industrial material. For instance, say the vehicle is headed to a home improvement center with a load of smoke detectors and lantern mantles - both radioactive. But, say there’s a pallet of insecticide, or paint. On fire, the palletized liquids are your greater hazard. The inhaled radioactive products might eventually give you a tumor. Breathe in some burning alkyd paint or Sevin® dust, and you’ll be DRT (dead right there)….
Even with the most radiologically active loads, as long as the external container isn’t breached, you are safe to go about your business. For an added margin of safety, limit travel within five feet of the vehicle, but, don’t be afraid to get the VIN or registration, or take measurements.
The same type of tactics apply to a response to a business that utilizes radioactive products. Radiation is used to sterilize equipment, measure thickness and depth, look nondestructively inside products, examine welds, and so on.
If you can read signs, you should be ok. All places that use radiological products in the course of their business must limit it to specific areas, and post signs defining the boundary of that area.
If you are in a pursuit, and the bad guy runs onto campus into a room marked with a sign like this:
most certainly, you can follow him. As long as he doesn’t knock anything over, or open anything, you’ll be ok. Remember time and distance? Minimize time and maximize distance, and you’ll be fine.
Consider him potentially contaminated, and use the techniques we discussed earlier (limiting time near the contaminated person, decontamination, protecting the airway), but don’t let it stop you from effecting an arrest. This sign is not a bad sign. It’s like a heads-up to you, to let you know a potential for trouble exists, but as long as no packages are opened, or a fire that contacts the packages occurs, you should be ok.
Now, look at this sign:
Notice the difference? While the last sign said you were dealing with radioactive products, this one warns that you may be exposed to radiation in this area.
Recall that there are both man-made and natural sources of radiation. If you are chasing the bad guy through a hospital, you will see this sign posted around the X-ray and nuclear medicine departments. In the xray area, as long as they aren’t taking x-rays, you’re safe. There should be a warning lamp in the area whenever radiation-producing operations are commencing.
The nuclear medicine department isn’t like the xray area, in that they often use products that are always emitting radiation. By law, these items are secured when not actively in use, so tread without fear there in a pursuit.
On the other hand, if you respond to a break-in, and the security guard says she “went in there, and the closets and rooms are all trashed”, you might consider waiting until you can find a meter. Don’t let it stop you from any kind of lifesaving effort, though.
If you are in a foot pursuit, and the bad guy runs into a junkyard, and past a yellow chain or rope, stop long enough to read what the sign says. If the words “Airborne” or “High Radiation Area” are on the sign, it’s a good point to let your helo continue the pursuit, or form a perimeter.
The second type of incident is the unknown incident.
An unknown incident is where you are working a call, and, for some reason EMA or Fire shows up, and their meter starts humming. Or, maybe the one guy on your shift with a radpager decides to stop by now that there’s no chance he will have to be a witness, haul a prisoner, or do paperwork (we ALL know who you are!) As he peers over your shoulder, the red led goes steady.
Unknown incidents are more troubling for me. With known incidents, you can estimate your hazards by looking at manifests or other documents. With an unknown incident, you are flying blind.
An excellent example of an unknown incident is an RDD. You most likely won’t get the call as an RDD, unless intelligence or other spook-like assets are involved. You’ll get it as a bomb call, or fire/explosion. When you get there, it may look like a bomb has gone off. It may not. It may look like a dust has settled. You may not even be able to see anything.
Another perfect example is a nuclear detonation. Contrary to popular belief and folklore, neither of these will render "….large areas uninhabitable for eons!” Currently, there are people living and thriving in the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Once a year, you can visit the site of the world’s first nuclear explosion. You can almost literally stand at the detonation point. It’s limited to once a year only due to budget constraints. For the more adventurous, you can dive the reefs around the atolls where most of our Pacific testing occurred.
While you might believe that a nudet (nuclear detonation) wouldn’t fall into an unknown incident, it actually is a good example. Fallout could potentially travel a long distance, and you may not be aware that you are in the path until post-contamination.
In all unknown events, the keys are the same as for a known event. Avoid breathing in dusts. My friends who work the nuke plants say you can filter a great deal with just a N95 half-face mask. Limit your time in the areas you suspect are contaminated. Immediately decontaminate yourself if you think you’ve been ‘slimed’. You don’t need a lot of fancy gear to accomplish this, find some water, start with your nose and face, and wash your hair and body. Using extreme methods such as bristle brushes, duct tape, creams, or abrasive soaps are borderline medical therapies, and best left to the specialists. The fact is, soap and water will cleanse you of most WMD agents.
Continue with life-safety efforts. Recall that you can take a HUGE dose before you do permanent damage to yourself. Encourage others to decon, too. Consider purchasing a pack of N-95 rated dust masks. Wear them any time you are in a potential post-blast or RDD call. Even if it turns out to not be a radiation incident, a dust mask is a good investment. Ask the medically injured from the WTC if they regret not wearing a mask now.
On the other hand, do NOT waste your money on radiation pills. They’re 95% snake oil, worthless in all but one circumstance. Don’t worry about expensive suits, either. Your duty uniform will shield you from many radiological products. The fancy yellow suits are only to help decon, they don’t have any magic anti-rad properties.
In short, be calm, be alert, and maintain presence. Your behavior will go a long way towards calming down those around you less informed.
Finally, I’d like to squash some rumors….
It takes a LOT of radiation to make you sterile. No, the Bruce Banner / Hulk thing was fiction (I really got asked that.) No, radiation will not cause you to grow in size, or sprout another head. Yes, I have seen a tree where the leaves flipped the wrong way, two-headed fish, and deer with tumors, but there are additional causations for those incidents. Yes, a lot of radiation at once or a little over a long period of time can increase your chance of getting cancer, and increase your chance of having offspring with birth defects, but the studies all say the greatest chance are for people who live around high exposure rate areas, not for people who are exposed in one or two unfortunate events. And, nuke plants aren’t high exposure areas. High altitudes, and areas with a lot of granite-like stones are.
No, I have never seen nor heard of a giant atomic ant. No, if you get irradiated, you will not glow or get any special powers. NO, there are no current medicines to make you impervious to radiation. No, eating food that has been irradiated will not make you radioactive. And, on the topic of ‘becoming’ radioactive, yes, it is possible (called activation), but you would really, REALLY have to be at the wrong place at the right time for something like that. Unless you absorb or ingest a radioactive substance, or are externally contaminated with it, once you are removed from the area of a radioactive source, that’s it. No more exposure. So, getting some radioactive product on you will not normally make you radioactive. Yes, I heard the story of the guy who used to swallow a piece of uranium to prove it wasn’t harmful. What he didn’t realize was that while the radiation wasn’t going to do him in, he was in essence eating lead paint chips (most radioactive products are a greater chemical poison than a radiation hazard). So, no, I won’t eat any myself to prove my point, nor will I drink coolant makeup water from a nuclear power plant (they add stuff to that to protect the piping).
In fact, that’s an important enough point to warrant saying it again: there is a significant difference between exposure and contamination. Exposure is like sticking your head in a microwave. As long as you push the button, you’re being harmed. Let go, and it’s over. Contamination is where something that is radioactive gets on/in you, and continues to dose you. What I am telling you is not to fear an irradiated suspect or victim. As long as they don’t have it on them, you are perfectly safe. If they do have radioactive material on them, most times it’s nothing that a fire department hose can’t resolve. And, as long as you’re wearing a N95 dust mask, 99% of the time, nothing they have on them will hurt you enough to shy away from effecting an arrest or a rescue.
In closing, I hope you’ve learned some about the truthful aspects of radiation and radiological products. Feel free to print this out and pass it to your friends. Check out some of the links below to further your education, too!
Sources for further investigation
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part040/part040-0013.html
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/brochures/br0217/#pub-info
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part020/
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/dirty-bombs.html
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/editorial/editorial_0420.xml
http://www.crcpd.org/AnnualMeeting-04/Manuscripts/Brandon.htm
(this is an excellent example of what we’ve discussed in action.)
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf36.htm
References
The WMD Awareness Guide, by Shawn Hughes
http://hpschapters.org/northcarolina/Radterror.ppt
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/rert/radfacts.htm
http://hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q2514.html
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/radiation/arsphysicianfactsheet.asp
http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/Title_41/Part_50-204/41CFR50-204.24.htm
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/doctrine/national/frerp.htm
