AMERICA UNPREPARED FOR “DIRTY BOMB”: DR. JAMES BLAIR
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.7606/pub_detail.asp
Dirty Bombs: A Day Late And A Dollar Short
Dr. James Blair, DPA, MHA, FACHE, FABCHS
Few of us in the all-hazards healthcare emergency readiness business were surprised by the 7 October, 2010, Hill Newspaper article “Top House Dems warn U.S. ‘ Unprepared for dirty bomb attack’.”
I devote an entire chapter to the issue in my recent book, “UNREADY: To Err is Human-The Other Neglected Side of Hospital safety and Security.”
What are we talking about? Cesium-137.
The Defense Science Board in its 2007 report, Summer Study on Challenges to Military Operations in Support of National Interests (pdf document, p 19) , identified the over 1000 cesium-137 closed containers with 1,000 Ci* or greater as the dominant radiological dispersal device (RDD) ”Dirty Bomb” threat to the nation. Terrorist penetration of these sources and subsequent explosion could shut down 25 square kilometers anywhere in the United states for 40 or more years”.
Explode it in place or liberate it from poorly secured or non-hardened sites in hospitals and healthcare research facilities across the nation, it beats those troublesome and risky alternatives of hiding it in some international container shipment or smuggling it with illegal drug traffic across the Mexican border.
However, smuggling these materials over the borders is a real possibility. U.S. “Red Teams”(friendly forces testing extant defenses of friendly sites), in this case border security, failed to defend against radioactive materials crossing both borders, as reported in a Government Accountability Office’s report, numbered GAO- 06- 583T (pdf document).
For those who may think that this is a newly surfaced issue may want to review a subsequent GAO report, entitled: “Nuclear Proliferation: DOE Action Needed to Ensure Continued Recovery of Unwanted Sealed Radioactive Sources” (GAO-03-483, pdf document).
In August 2009, under the banner, Feds work to secure potential ‘dirty bomb’, USA Today.com reported that 1,300 machines in medical facilities across the nation will be fitted with new security measures to harden these sites. Homeland Security’s Domestic Nuclear Detection (DNDO) spokesperson indicated that Cesium contained in just one machine could be used as “dirty bomb” followed by the assurances that they pose no immediate or credible threat.
Red Teams were able to defeat existing hospital defenses in Two (2) minutes. These revelations failed to create any serious reaction except among those already deeply concerned about issues. The cavalier manner in which the subject was handled profoundly disturbed many.
The next month’s press release on 14 September, 2009 (COMBATING NUCLEAR TERRORISM: Preliminary Observations on Preparedness to Recover from Possible Attacks Using Radiological or Nuclear Materials, pdf document) provided little comfort. A field hearing before the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity and Science and Technology of the House Homeland Security Committee proudly revealed that all those hospital and healthcare sites which presented a dirty bomb risk would be secured by 2016.
The threat posed by poor security of medical use radioactive materials has been a lingering concern for us. Reports from the United Kingdom that their intelligence agency, MI-5 surfaced information that Al-Qaida had shown interest in medical use radiotherapy materials as a potential mass casualty weapon, served as a catalyst for increased attention for the issue. Ironically, about the same time, the startling revelation that groups of physicians employed by their National Health Service were not only terrorists but potentially suicide bombers created a deadly dynamic-duo threat to healthcare organizations.
The United Kingdom moved swiftly to secure all sites where medical use radioactive materials were in use. Detailed information on the multiple layers of protection and other policy changes are not available to the public. However, we do know that the threat was and is taken seriously.
Oversight from all levels of government has been spotty. External Evaluation mechanisms have failed the trusting public. The assumption that these mechanisms are the narrow point in the funnel and provide some type alert system for the threat posed by vulnerable medical use radioactive activities is wrong-headed. As long as multiply agency’s have a piece of the oversight action, accountability is a distant dream. JB
Note
*Ci = a “Curie,” a unit used to measure radioactivity. One curie is equivalent to 3.7 billion decays per second, or 3.7 billion becquerels.
Further Reading: Associated Press News, Sept 8, 2009, Study: Terrorist shifting to ‘soft’ targets,
g2bulletin.com, June 8, 2007 – Al-Qaida seeks hospital chemicals by Gordon Thomas (subscription required), Nuclear Research Reactors Perilous, GAO Report, GAO-08-403 (pdf), and
Nuclear waste piling up at hospitals, AP Impact Report, September 26, 2008.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributor Dr. James Blair, DPA, MHA, FACHE, FABCHS, is president and CEO of the Center for HealthCare Emergency Readiness. This article was adapted from excerpts from Blair’s book, Unready: To Err is Human: The Other Neglected Side of Hospital Safety and Security, which was published in June. He is also a career-retired army colonel with 28 years of active service. Among his private sector experiences, he served as VP of Hospital Corporation of America, Middle East Limited and as an independent consultant to Joint Commission International.
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