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[Narrator:] This is the story ofthe decontamination efforts

conducted jointly bythe Pennsylvania Health

Department and the UnitedStates Public Health Service

during the summer of 1964at Lansdowne, Pennsylvania.

This duplex frame house inthe quiet residential section

of Lansdowne is unique,because its basement

is contaminated with radium.

Painstaking follow-up ofold records and alert action

by the PennsylvaniaDepartment of Health

revealed that the formerowner, a university professor,

processed radium in the basementduring the 1920s and 30s.

Preliminary alphareadings, depicted

in red on the floorplan, were in excess

of 1 milliondisintegrations per minute

per 60 square centimeters.

Average alpha levels werein the hundreds of thousands

disintegrations per minute.

Gamma readings wereapproximately 1 milliroentgen

hour 3 feet above thefloor of the basement.

Autoradiographs made onsheets of conventional X-ray

film of sectionsof floors and walls

show the patternsof contamination.

Each dark spot on the film wasproduced by a speck of radium.

A large dark splotch showswhere the radium had been

spilled on the concrete floor.

Knowing the patternsof contamination,

appropriate plansfor decontamination

could be made accordingly.

The kitchen was establishedas the control point.

The hallway to the basementseparated the clean

from the contaminated areas.

Personnel were suitedwith plastic coveralls

on top of cloth coveralls.

Surgical caps were wornunder plastic hoods.

Surgical gloves were wornunder rubber kitchen gloves.

Rubber boots covered the shoes.

Masking tape was usedto cover all openings.

During the decontaminationoperations,

different types of protectiveclothing were tested.

Full face masks suppliedwith compressed air

were worn bydecontamination personnel

working in the basement.

Air samples weretaken continuously.

Note the two types of masks--

a Scott pressuredemand regulated type

on the left and a free-flowtype on the right.

Alpha and beta gamma surveyswere also made continuously.

Instruments and notebooks wereprotected in polyethylene bags.

After removal ofhousehold goods,

the entire basement wascleaned with a Cambridge

vacuum equipped withan absolute filter.

The hose and handle werecovered with strippable tape.

Vacuuming provedunsatisfactory, however,

because the large volume ofdust soon clogged the filter.

Test samples andautoradiographs indicated

that the radium was sandwichedbetween layers of paint,

and that chipping was requiredto remove the contamination.

Note that the ceiling wascovered with plastic sheet

to confine the contamination.

The debris was collectedin 55-gallon drums.

Low-level wastes were sortedout and subsequently disposed

of in accordancewith Commonwealth

of Pennsylvania Law.

The dust was hoseddown and squeegeed

into a sump, from whichthe wastewater was

pumped into a 55-gallonwaste treatment

tank outside the house.

The floor scrubbingtreatment proved ineffective.

And later, the concrete floorwas also removed by chipping.

Waste drums were packed,sealed, and sorted

prior to their shipment toa high level waste disposal

site in New York state.

Personnel monitoringwas conducted

throughout the project,and also included

nose wipes, urine analyses,and the use of film badges

and pocket dosimeters.

At the end of the project,decontamination personnel

exposures wereconsiderably less than 1/2

the permissibleoccupational exposure.

Contaminated clothingwas collected

in polyethylenebuckets for disposal.

Contamination had spread to theoutside area during the years

that the professor hadbeen processing radium.

Surveys made with analpha monitor, a gas

proportional counter,revealed activity

on the order of a fewthousand counts per minute.

And further decontaminationwas not considered necessary.

The thin mylarwindow of the probe

was approximately 440square centimeters in area,

and proved effective incovering large areas quickly.

Barely detectabletraces of radium

were found onadjacent properties

and presented nosignificant health problem.

Gamma readings were takenwith a GM survey meter

at the surface and three feetfrom the center of each drum.

An estimated 30milligrams of radium

were collected in a totalof 180 55-gallon drums

and properly disposed of.

The United States Air Forcealso cooperated in this project

by providing the loan ofa radio chemistry trailer

laboratory containinginternal proportional counters

and acetylation alpha counterfor checking smear samples,

nose wipes, and air filters.

While the project requiredover 14,000 man days,

the valuable experience gainedand the resulting manual

on decontamination ofradium will be most useful

for future training purposes.

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