Commission Cites Harvard Hospital's Radiation Levels

A Harvard-affiliated teaching hospital exposed an employee to excessive levels of radiation and violated other safety rules, the Nuclear Regulatory commission charged this week.

Brigham and Women's Hospital has 30 days to respond to the charges that it violated regulations, which include inadequate documentation of packaging radioactive material and exposing an unidentified Deaconess Hospital employee to 21 times the permisable level of radiation.

The exposure had been "whithin the acceptable range of safety as defined by the NRC," Susan McGreevy, Deaconess spokesman, said.

The technician who was affected was unharmed, she added and would not seek compensation.

A poorly fastened lid on a lead container allowed the excess radiation to leak into a second container according to the NRC report.

The NRC's charges followed an investigation of the hospital's report of the overexposure, which occurred on August 3.

A spokesman for the NRC, Brian Norris, ascribed the violations to "a laxity in handling, "but added that the problems were easily corrected. All procedure now meets regulations, Richard Eckel, public relations official at the hospital, said.

If the hospital does not challenge the charges, it will be fined $1250 for the incident with the technician and $625 for the other violations.