Monday, June 8, 2009

Recycling has created radioactive consumer goods.

Jeez, even recycling causes cancer! From Live Science:
An investigation by Scripps Howard News Service reveals that millions of pounds of metal have been contaminated with radioactive material during the recycling process, which can lead to low levels of radiation in consumer products including handbags and tableware.

The contamination occurs because as metal is recycled, multiple products are melted in a furnace to produce new metal sheets. If one piece of this metal contains radioactive material, it can be spread during the melting process.

Among the incidents reported in the investigation, two separate facilities in Florida and Texas melted metal containing Cesium-137 with other scrap metal, resulting in approximately 1.4 million and 500,000 pounds of recycled radioactive steel.

The radioactive recycling also occurs internationally. In 1998, a Brazil recycler shipped 430,000 pounds of Cobalt-60 tainted steel to the U.S. The steel was used in brackets for Reclina-Rocker chairs, but contamination was discovered before the chairs were shipped to stores.

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