- Academic are the only ones to do this type of treatment in the vicinity. So we contacted the hospital and asked them to outline their procedures for how they handle waste, says Torsten Cederlund, head of the Medical Radiation Unit at the Radiation Protection Authority.
Failed to inform patient
The incontinence protection is suspected to come from an elderly person who has been treated with radiation but has not been informed about how the waste should be handled after the treatment.
- Normally when patients are sent home they go to the toilet and then the radioactive substance is quickly diluted, and then it does not matter, says Alexander Englund, Radiation Protection Expert at Region Uppsala.
- We should have caught this.
The radioactivity in the container was not dangerous for those who worked on the dump. All waste facilities have detectors in the containers that warn of radioactivity. The level in the diapers was just above the value of what the detectors feel.