Posted on 01/02/2005 3:08:28 PM PST by wagglebee
HOSPITAL patients were given radiation treatment at a nuclear reactor without proper authorisation or supervision by a doctor, according to newly declassified documents.
Memos sent by Scottish Office officials in 1967 noted that the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) was concerned that proper procedures were not being followed when some patients were treated at the Scottish Research Reactor Centre in East Kilbride.
At one point in the late 1960s, up to 30 people a day were being treated at the centre. Patients were given small doses of an iron isotope and vitamin B12 containing cobalt iron in connection with work on pernicious anaemia, while others with reduced bone marrow were given doses of phosphorus-32 in hospital.
In 1974, another Scottish Office memo reported that the NII was "on the verge of losing patience" over what were described as "misdemeanours" - such as treating patients without the proper authorisation and taking extra nuclear fuel without permission.
The official who wrote the latter memo - a member of staff in the Energy New Towns Division of the Scottish Economic Planning Department - joked he was not advising against "travelling downwind of East Kilbride", but trying to detail how the problems at the centre were being addressed.
This note, dated 17 July, 1974, said: "I think you should be alerted to the concerns NII are expressing over the breaches of nuclear site licences which have occurred over the past year or so at the centre.
"Whilst NII do not doubt the competence of the staff at the centre, they feel that the licensee is less scrupulous in fulfilling the terms of the licence than licensees at other centres in England.
"The inspectorate are on the verge of losing patience and intend again to alert the centre’s director that matters must improve.
"The sort of misdemeanours encountered are: taking extra nuclear fuel without permission, uprating from 100kW to 300kW but submitting the design nine months late, administering treatment to patients without the proper authorisation procedure being complied with."
The reactor centre, which closed in 1995, was administered by Strathclyde University, but was used by several other universities. It also provided prescribed "in vivo" treatment for patients from the Western Regional Hospital Board.
The July 1974 memo said: "The whole in vivo irradiation procedure is messy and the responsibility boundaries hazy, but we have this well in hand with NII and SHHD [the Scottish Home and Health Department].
"The purpose of alerting you to this situation is not to spread alarm and despondency, nor to prevent your travelling downwind of East Kilbride, but merely to let you know of the situation and that remedial steps are being taken."
Other documents in a Scottish Office file on the reactor - which largely contains documents about which bodies would be liable if any of the patients sued - showed that the NII had been concerned about practices there as early as 1967
It must have something to do with SCOTTISH LAW.
Now there some 'news'! Must'a been a slow news day there.
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