By IANS,
New Delhi : West Delhi’s Mayapuri area is “not a safe zone for human beings”, environment body Greenpeace said Friday after a visit to the scrapyard where a person died after exposure to radiation last month.
“The investigation has identified hotspots with more than 5,000 times natural background radiation,” a Greenpeace expert said after the team’s visit.
“A team investigated the shop and its surrounding areas in Mayapuri in which the first radiation leak took place. Two radiation experts, Stan Vincent from Belgium and Jan Vande Putte from UK, also accompanied our team and investigated the area.
“With three radioactive detectors machines we found out that radiation exposure is still high in the area,” a Greenpeace spokesperson told IANS.
The government had earlier given a clean chit to the scrapyard.
Greenpeace has shared the information with local residents and the concerned authorities.
“Only 37 people have been scanned for radiation exposure in the area, which is not enough. Residents of the entire area should be scanned for radiation exposure. Mayapuri area is not a safe zone for human beings to reside in as it still has a high-level of radiation exposure,” the spokesperson said.
Police had said the source of the leak last month was a radioactive gamma cell containing Cobalt 60 that was auctioned as scrap by Delhi University’s chemistry department two months ago.
Six people exposed to the radioactive Cobalt 60 are still in hospital.