WATCH UNDT!!!! April 2, 2012 - Stabroeck News - Final report finds T&T cancer patients suffered severe radiation injuries at Lara Treatment Centre - A multi speciality team of radiation experts tasked with conducting a medical evaluation of patients exposed to radiation overdoses, ranging from four to 20 per cent more than had been prescribed for them at the Brian Lara Cancer Treatment Centre (BLCTC), have found clinical evidence of “severe radiation injury”. The final report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) January 2012 Assistance Mission to Trinidad and Tobago found that some of the 223 patients who were adversely affected by over-radiation at the BLCTC had: “clinical evidence of such severe radiation injury that an experienced clinician cannot help but think that even an approximate 15 per cent overdose may have been a contributing factor in causing an increased severity of the injuries in some of these patients”. The report comes three years after a radiotherapy overdose incident at the private Port of Spain cancer treatment facility, owned by Medcorp Ltd, and 18 months after the PAHO (Pan American Health Organisation) concluded in a secretly-held report commissioned by the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) that patients had not only been given excessive doses of radiation over an 18-month period up to June 2010, but that at the time of writing of the PAHO report in September 2010, they had not been informed about the radiation overdose or “the potential impact on their well-being and quality of life”.
April 2, 2012 - The Mail - Camera than can 'see' radiation will assess danger levels at stricken Fukushima nuclear reactor - There are still dangerously high radiation levels at Japan’s crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactor – but now the plant’s owner is able to see the normally invisible threat.The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has created a prototype ‘Super-wide Angle Compton Camera’ capable of creating images of gamma ray-emitting radioactive particles. This equipment is based on the gamma ray-observing sensor technology to be added to the agency’s next X-ray observation satellite, ASTRO-H.It is expected to be able to create visual images of radioactive particles that have collected at high altitudes such as building roofs where it is difficult to conduct measurements with existing equipment. It can also detect particles that have widely dispersed on the ground and residential houses.