Report says medical equipment is vulnerable to terrorists

[The Straight Story]

Report says medical equipment is vulnerable to terrorists
By Bob Brewin [e-mail] January 12, 2009

Terrorists could seize medical equipment that use radioactive isotopes and build dirty bombs that could blanket an area the size of Manhattan, warned a new report from the Defense Science Board.

The board, made up of approximately 40 civilian members who advise the Pentagon on scientific and technical matters, recommended that the Defense and Homeland Security departments invest $200 million over five years to replace current equipment with cobalt sources or electron beam irradiators that are used to sterilize food.

More than 1,000 machines in the United States now use the cesium-137 isotope as a radiation source in medical research and blood irradiation. The irradiation process disinfects blood and is a common practice used to prevent transfusion-associated graft versus host disease, which could kill a patient receiving a blood transfusion.

Replacing the equipment that uses cesium-137 in blood irradiators "would eliminate the most dangerous domestic RDD threat," said the report, released earlier this month.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41781&dcn=todaysnews

[madrchsod]

1. my god reading that made my head hurt.......

there are easier and just as deadly "terror weapons" that are easier to find and use....i need to take a aspirin

[Dogmudgeon]

2. Nuclear-phobia. It's not just for rock stars anymore.

--p!