Irvine Firm’s Chief Defends Delay in Reporting Leak of Radioactive Gas

The president of an Irvine company that leaked radioactive gas said Thursday he failed to tell state health officials about the leak within 24 hours, as required, because he didn’t believe the accident warranted the disclosure at the time.

Milan Panic, president of ICN Biomedical Inc., said the company waited six days to notify state officials about a Feb. 25 accident that released the radioactive gas tritium because, he said, “You don’t use regulations when you have an accident, you use judgment and experience.”

Panic said Thursday at a press conference at the company’s laboratory at 2727 Campus Drive, “I think we are experienced enough to have made the judgment call.”

However, officials at the State Department of Health Services disagreed, and said they will pursue legal action against the company for failing to notify them of the accident sooner.

ICN Biomedical Inc., a manufacturer of products for biomedical and biochemical research, confirmed Thursday that the accident in a glass laboratory processing line released the gas into the atmosphere.

Never a Danger, Firm Says

But company officials said the amount of radiation released was never a danger to workers at the laboratory or people outside the company.

One worker was directly exposed, Panic said, but the level of radiation was too weak to harm him.

Tritium, or radioactive hydrogen, is a weak beta emitter that is hazardous when swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Tritium is used to label products and for such other uses as exit signs in aircrafts.

Al Baietti, a radiological control officer for ICN, said the accident occurred when a glass beaker containing a small amount of tritium broke. He said a chemist handling the tritium mistakenly used liquid hydrogen instead of dry ice as a coolant in a treatment process.

ICN did not contact state officials immediately because it took days to collect exact data on the accident, Baietti said. State health services officials said the company notified them by phone March 3, then again in a formal letter March 15.

Kassy Edgington, a representative of the state Department of Health Services, said Thursday the leak of about 500 curies of the gas (about the level of radiation in a single X-ray), posed no danger to public health.

‘No Danger to the Public’

Robert Merryman, environmental health director for Orange County, said he took several tests near the company Tuesday and is “satisfied that there was no danger to the public at any time.”

Further tests of the area and the radiation released are still being taken, Edgington said.

Once those tests are made, she said, the Department of Health Services will pursue civil and possibly criminal charges against ICN Biomedical Inc.

“We want to show them that we are not going to tolerate this sort of action,” she said about the reporting delay.

The fine for failing to notify state officials is $5,000 a day for each day that radiation is leaked from the laboratory, Edgington said.

The Department of Health Services said Thursday that the laboratory is still leaking small amounts of the radioactive gas. ICN denies that the leak still exists.

Activities at the laboratory where the tritium is processed have ceased for an indefinite period, company officials said.

“We are very concerned about this accident, as we are concerned about any accident,” said Panic, who noted that the laboratory may consider improvements on some laboratory procedures.