Wallace & Graham Links Lung Cancer to Radiation Exposure

Wednesday, November 12, 2014 | | Author: | Original Article

Wallace & Graham successfully obtained compensation for a worker who developed lung cancer after years of exposure to low-level gamma radiation.  Our client worked in a medical supply sterilization facility.  

Every day, 24 hours a day, with 95% "up time," the facility used an extremely high-powered radiation source -- a block of cobalt-60 -- to irradiate medical supplies, thereby killing off any germs.  Most workers in the office were shielded from the high-powered gamma radiation by 6-foot-thick concrete and steel walls which blocked most of the gamma rays.  However, due to the construction of the entryway, there was a small arc with not quite enough shielding to block all of the gamma radiation.  The result was a beam of gamma radiation passing through the office along a straight line drawn from the radiation source through the area of inadequate shielding.

The beam went undetected for many years.  Radiation monitoring stations were set up around the outside of the radiation room, but none were in the path of the beam.  Employees were required to wear radiation badges, but not in their offices; their offices were considered safe.  

The beam was finally detected in 2006 when, during a routine replacement of the radiation source, one technician happened to test the outer wall of the containment room at a point no one had checked before: in the path of the beam.

Our client worked in his office, directly in the path of this beam, for many years.  So did a secretary and a receptionist.  All three have cancer.  Attorney Mike Pross, assisted by attorney Aaron Goss, successfully argued that our client's years of exposure to elevated gamma radiation levels from the beam placed him at increased risk of developing lung cancer.

We believe this is the first time lung cancer has been successfully linked to radiation exposure in a workers' compensation case in North Carolina.