Massive Thai Radiation Leak Claims More Victims by Phairath Khampha 29 April 2000 Cobalt 60 claims one more victim Samut Prakan A 32-year-old woman was admitted to the intensive care unit of the provincial hospital in Thailand's Samut Prkarn Province after being exposed to cobalt 60 radiation. The exposure took place in February 2000 when the radioactive material was released into the environment after a scrap dealer came acoss the container containing the material and took it apart. The incident demonstrated the lack of any decent regulatory mechanism in Thailand for dealing with dangerous substances and the lackadaisical manner in which Thai government officials deal with such issues. The hospital's director Dr Wicharn Kerdwichai said Chanthip Petcharat, a former scrapyard employee, was found to have had an unusually low white blood-cell count. Since the leak in February, doctors three times conducted three different blood tests on residents of Soi Wat Mahawong in Samrong. Of six people put in hospital, three had already died. Dr Wicharn said Mrs Chanthip was among seven others found to have a low count in subsequent tests. Mrs Chanthip and another woman worked in the yard before the leak. Concern for leak victims Five pregnant women were among 44 people who have shown symptons of radiation poisoning from the cobalt 60 leak, the director of Samut Prakan hospital said on April 4. The 44 included seven scrap collectors and scrapyard workers whose condition was serious, said Dr Wicharn Kerdwichai. Four with a white blood cell count below 3,000/mg were being kept under close observation, and 25 of 1,000 people whose count was causing concern started to show signs of recovery. Dr Wicharn said there was serious concern for the five pregnant women from Soi Wat Mahawong. A medical team has been set up to take special care of the women and to determine if their pregnancies will be terminated for their own safety. Thailand has had 136 radioactive accidents The Cobalt-60 radiation leak in Samut Prakan province may be the biggest so far, but it is not the first, as the country has already reported a total of 136 accidents involving radioactive substances, Dr Warunee Chinarat said on April 11. Warunee said she knew from a recent seminar of the Medical Services Department that the country had already experienced a total of 136 non-fatal radiation accidents, 60 of which involved cobalt. The incident involving both leakage and contamination that occurred in Samut Prakan was only the 29th of its kind. Most of the accidents, she said, resulted from improper handling of radioactive substances. Warunee said six of her 10 patients had already been released from the hospital but they were not 100-per cent free from the effects of the contamination. One of patients who had been released, Sonthaya Sraprathum, may had to have his hand amputated in order to prevent his gangrenous wound from spreading.