Since many days a radioactive case is being published in Indian newspaper. The case was found in the capital of India I,e. Delhi. Few days back in a scrap market in delhi few people were found unconscious. They were taken to the hospital. The investigation was then started to find out the matter and the root cause of its origin. The whole area was kept isolated and people were restricted to enter the place. A team of expert was sent to sort out the case.
After investigation it was found that a scrap collector had broght some scrap with him in the market in which was the radioactive scrap also and it was found out to be Cobalt 60. Cobalt 60 is used mainly for laboratories and hospitals. Since other radio actives are banned from use in hospital so for this purpose generally cobalt is used.
Today in the newspaper a new finding of the case is published. It says that ”If the presence of radioactive Cobalt 60 at the Mayapuri scrap market was not shocking enough, the police on Wednesday dropped a bigger bombshell. The lethal metal, which has resulted in one death and critical injuries to many othes, came from Delhi University’s Chemistry lab and was sold to a scrap dealer in an acution in February this year, they said.”
How this radioacrive highly dangerous material got in the reach of an ordinary scrap collector is really a matter of concern. This is really very dangerous from citizen’s health point of view. It is believed that a scrap collector named, Harcharan Singh Bola, had bough the gamma cell for Rs. 1.5 lakh from a delhi university. Harcharan recognized the photo of the scrap that Bhola identified it as the equipment he had bought from the Delhi University Chemistry lab. The gamma irradiator was lying unused for the last 25 years. It was bought in 1970 from Canada but it was not used since 1985. It is used in performing experiments for analyzing the effect of gamma rays on chemicals.
DCP Sharad Agarwal said, “We have traced the radioactive material to Delhi University’s chemistry department. One of the pieces of equipment the scrap dealers bought was a gamma irradiator.”