FedEx searching for missing radioactive package

[Turborama]

Source: CNN

FedEx could learn Friday what happened to a package containing radioactive materials that went missing a day before.

The company said it is searching in the Tennessee area and that the item is safe as long as nobody tampers with the protective packaging around it.

The item is a cylinder containing rods used for hospital machinery that were being sent to a person in Knoxville, Tennessee, said Sandra Munoz, a company spokeswoman. "The rods are used for quality control calibration," Munoz said. "We have lots of experience in handling this kind of shipment."

Munoz said the company may learn more Friday morning when two employees who handled the shipment return to work.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/11/26/tennessee.fedex.radioactive/index.html?hpt=T2

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OOPS!

[AndyTiedye]

1. When It Absolutely, Positively Has to Get There…

…oopsie

[onethatcares]

2. absolutely, positively,

safe as can be. AS LONG AS NO ONE OPENS THE PACKAGE. Gaud, that makes me feel great.

I think I'm gonna go get screened and felt up at the airport today, do you need a ticket for that?

[Glimmer of Hope]

3. I FedEx a lot of packages and about 1-3 times a year FedEx's equipment

rips off the shipping label. When this happens, FedEx opens the box to look for any contact information. There is usually a 1-2 day delay or sometimes the package slips off the radar for weeks.

[jmm]

4. May learn more when two employees return to work?

Normally I'm not for bothering employees during their off time but when a radioactive package goes missing pick up the phone. This reminds me of when that dog was euthanized by accident recently and the vet's office said they'd have to wait until the person who did it came back to work to finish investigating. They're using the day off of work excuse to stall for time.

[rasputin1952]

5. That's what I was thinking as well...

use some of that "high tech" stuff, like a telephone!...:yes:

[southshore]

6. Can't call an employee on a holiday

If Fedex calls an employee on a holiday, they have to pay them for the time they were on the phone, and hey, 5 bucks doesn't grow on trees ya know!

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. What do hospitals use radioactive rods for???

What kind of machinery?
Can anyone bring me up to speed on that?
I have not been in a hospital as a patient since ...1974.

[NoodleyAppendage]

8. Nuclear Medicine. PET scans, etc. n/t

J

[Old Italia]

9. Yikes

Someone is getting fired in FedEx.

[Lost-in-FL]

10. Nothing to see here. Just another example of bad journalism.

First, radiactive "rods" are not used on CT Scans, but on PET Scanners/Nuclear Medicine equipment. The xrays or the radiation of a CT Scan is only produced during the actual exposure, created by a beam of electrons hitting a heavy metal (Molybdenum), etc. When the unit is NOT in use, there is no radiation.

Second, those rods are safe to be sent on regular delivery when the half life in the "rods" has passed. The half life on those is extremely short lived. In other words, that radioactive rod isn't radioactive anymore most of the time. They are placed in heavy lead boxes to prevent radiation exposure even when the rods are no longer radioactive.

So in short, this is just an idiot journalist causing mass hysteria over absolutely nothing.

[Turborama]

11. FedEx finds missing radioactive package

From Vivian Kuo, CNN
November 26, 2010 -- Updated 19:56 GMT

FedEx on Friday found a package containing radioactive material that went missing a day earlier at one of its shipping stations in Knoxville, Tennessee, the company said.

The package contained a radioactive rod used in CT scans, which use X-rays to create images of patients' bodies.

The shipment was lost in transit between its origination point, a hospital in North Dakota, and the equipment's manufacturer in Tennessee.

FedEx spokeswoman Sandra Munoz said the rod was enclosed in a metal cylinder that was itself enclosed in a rectangular box. That rectangular box had originally been placed in another box that had the shipping information on it.

More: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/11/26/tennessee.fedex.radioactive/index.html?hpt=T2