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Unlawful Flint use of portable X-ray scanners began in 2019, not 2020
LANSING — A New York law firm may have used unregistered portable X-ray scanners on Flint residents for one year longer than state officials were told, records show.A sworn affidavit from a Flint resident, along with emails showing when the Napoli Shkolnik law firm sought to lease the devices, suggest the use of scanners, which are tools in the scrap metal and mining industries but are not designed for use on human beings, began around September 2019. That is about 18 months before either of the two devices was registered with the state of Michigan, as required by law.
A representative of the law firm, whose name was redacted, told the state in March it had been using the devices for only about six months, since August or September of 2020, before registering them in February, according to a state summary of a phone call the Free Press obtained under Michigan's Freedom of Information Act.
Failing to register a radiation machine is a misdemeanor under the Public Health Code that can bring a $10,000 fine and up to 180 days in jail, with each day that a violation continues considered a separate violation. But the state brought no criminal or civil charges against the law firm, records show.
The scanners were applied to the tibias of thousands of Flint residents, including many children and at least one pregnant woman, to measure how much lead had accumulated in their bones. Lawyers and some medical experts have said radiation levels are low and use of the portable scanners is safe.
But the manufacturer of the scanners, Thermo Fisher Scientific, ultimately ordered Napoli Shkolnik to stop using them.
The company said in a May letter to the law firm that it had in rare cases authorized use of the scanners on humans for research purposes, but that had only happened under the supervision of an Institutional Review Board, which was not in place for the scans that took place in Flint.
In addition to revelations about the radiation doses involved, the MIOSHA records obtained by the Free Press show the law firm's scanning operation in Flint had no system for monitoring radiation exposures for scanner operators, no physician licensed in Michigan supervising operations, no mechanism to ensure the scanners would shut off after about three minutes to prevent possible overexposure, and no written notice to Flint residents of the radiation they would be exposed to and any related risks, Reynolds said in the motion filed by his California attorney, Jahmy Graham.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2021/09/12/unlawful-flint-use-xray-scanners-began-one-year-earlier/8275952002/
8 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Analyze samples quickly and accurately with results available in seconds rather than the hours or days it can take for a traditional testing laboratory. When you need an analyzer for metal alloy analysis, the Thermo Scientific™ Niton™ XL3p+ XRF Analyzer provides nondestructive elemental analysis of virtually all metal alloys for scrap metal recycling, casting and fabrication, manufacturing and positive material identification.
https://www.thermofisher.com/order/catalog/product/10131167?SID=srch-srp-10131167#/10131167?SID=srch-srp-10131167
It’s not a toy, as it emits x-rays and can cause damage in the short term and long term.
Alpha and gamma emitter of Americium-241 but who is counting
Still I would not want to play with it.. My motto is no radiation is good radiation..
Your only protection is lead, distance and time... Least amount of exposure for the least amount of time... Even our life giving sun can kill... YMMV
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