A Radium Accident in a Hospital

On the 24th November 1964, damage was discovered to one of the tubes in the radium safe in the Radiumstation's operating theatre in Arhus. The Radiophysica1 Laboratory established that there was a hole in one end of the tube and that the inner cell containing the radium sulphate powder had disappeared. Measurements showed a contamination in the room containing the combined radium safe and radium bench, indicating that the missing cell was not intact. The accident was assumed to have happened on the 20th November, 4 days before its discovery, since the type of tube concerned was last used on that day, though it cannot be completely excluded that it happened even earlier. The damaged 10 mg radium tube was of the type RAC 9, manufactured by the Radiochemical Centre, Amersham. This type is designed for calibration purposes and is not so strongly made as those normally used for clinical purposes. The tube was sent to the Radiochemical Centre for examination and it appears from the metallurgical laboratory's report that the tube had no manufacturing faults and that the most probable cause of failure was that the tube has suffered mechanical damage such as a blow or by bending. It has not been possible to explain satisfactorily how the proposed damage could have happened, but the possibility cannot be entirely excluded that the tube was cut open in the radium safe as the drawer containing it was moved out or in.