Cops find radioactive material

2003-12-03 11:21

Johannesburg - Vaal police on Wednesday announced they had found a quantity of dangerous radioactive material which was stolen in October.

Superintendent Piet van Deventer said the Iridium isotope was found at a scrapyard in Germiston on the East Rand.

It was stolen in Vanderbijlpark on October 10 along with its container and the bakkie that was carrying it.

Van Deventer said staff at the scrapyard became suspicious of the material on Tuesday and called the police. Health department officials later recovered the material, registered to Oceaneering Unit Inspection, from the site.

Van Deventer and health authorities expressed their concern on Wednesday that when the material was recovered it was found to have been removed from its container.

Van Deventer said the material was radioactive and posed a serious danger to everyone that has come into contact with it since it was stolen.

The inside of its container, a red box some 300 by 200mm in size, and clearly marking the contents as dangerous and radioactive, was also contaminated and therefore dangerous to its current possessor.

Van Deventer said anyone that came into contact with the material were advised to contact their nearest hospital immediately for treatment or Dr Tobie Kotze at 021-948-6162.

Symptoms of radiation sickness included burn marks similar to sunburn as well as nausea and vomiting.

In later stages it could lead to hair loss, sterility, deformed children, cancer and even death.

- SAPA