Canada Ping!
Posted on 10/12/2012 8:55:18 AM PDT by Squawk 8888
MONTREAL — A ship container with radioactive kitchenware was detected at the Port of Montreal in May and hasn't been removed yet.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) issued an order to the cargo firm Hanjin Shipping Canada, demanding it remove the contaminated merchandise by Oct. 26.
"A shipment from the company triggered a Canada Border Services Agency radiation detection alarm upon its arrival at the Port of Montreal," the nuclear watchdog said in a statement.
"The order was issued on October 5 as a result of an inspection at the port that confirmed kitchenware carried within a shipping container was contaminated with Cobalt-60."
Hanjin Shipping Canada isn't licensed to carry nuclear materials, the watchdog said.
The order says the material would pose "an unreasonable risk to the environment and to the health and safety of persons should it remain in Canada for a prolonged period of time."
But the CNSC news release also says the cobalt isn't currently dangerous.
Canada Ping!
China testing the system?
Poisoned milk products, deadly dogfood.
This is more of the same.
Self-sterilizing kitchen ware, how cool is that?
I would not be surprised that what we have here is some ceramic ware that has blue glaze.
Using cobalt was an old school method of making blue glaze before we knew better.
(at least, that’s what my increasingly leaky brain seems to recall...someone please correct me if I am wrong)
Someone selling my ex-wife’s cooking utensils.
Now, Hon, be careful because the plate is really hot. No, I'm serious. It's already about 20 degrees hotter than when I left the kitchen.
Fiestware red was radioactive a long time ago.
Fiesta Ware.
Yeah, probably a blue pigment. Then again, the article says nothing about the intensity of the field. Cargo screening instruments are generally set to alarm at ten microR over background. (0.1 microSv for you SI types). That is pretty small. Wouldn’t want to eat off of it, but I have some pieces around here for training. No biggie.
It could be a lost source that got melted into the product, but I doubt it. That would be screaming high and make headlines.
Better than that, you don't need a stove to cook the food. Just put it on the plate, and bingo! Hot meal to go. Don't even need a microwave anymore!
Mom's favorite dinnerware..
Now that you mention it, I do remember that. I don’t recall what it was in fiestaware that made it radioactive, though.
I think they used uranium to get the brilliant red color.
Never eat anything from China.
Never eat off of anything from China.
China is the most polluted place on Earth.
This happened with a load of steel chairs from Mexico about ten years ago. Someone recycled a Cobalt 60 source from an x-ray device into scrap metal which got reprocessed into finished goods.
“China testing the system?”
Probably China using recycled metals from radioactive scrap.
Beware of Chinese made gold & silver jewelry.
Are they sure it wasn’t just a blue cobalt glaze on some earthenware?
Self-microwaving dishes!
It’s my favorite, too. Durable to the extreme, and made in the good old USA (which is really hard to find in dinnerware these days).
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