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 On Monday, thieves hijacked the truck that had been carrying
cobalt-60, a radioactive substance used for medical and industrial
applications that can also be used as an ingredient in a "dirty
bomb."
Police located the truck on Wednesday but found that the robbers had
removed the radioactive material from a protective case, exposing
themselves to dangerous levels of radiation, before dumping it less
than a mile away.
"The six people ... are presumed to be responsible or linked to the
theft of the vehicle which was carrying the cobalt-60," said a
government official, who asked not to be identified. He said the men
remained in police custody.
Pedro Noble, the health secretary of the state of Hidalgo, told
local television the men showed signs of "critical, close contact"
with radioactive material. The state health authority later said the
men, aged between 16 and 38, had been discharged after treatment.
The truck, which was taking the material from a hospital in the
northern city of Tijuana to a radioactive waste-storage center, was
seized when its driver stopped at a gas station in the town of
Temascalapa, 35 km (22 miles) northeast of Mexico City.
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Cobalt-60, the most common radioactive isotope of the metal, is also
used for industrial radiography to detect structural flaws in metal
parts, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Exposure to gamma radiation from cobalt-60 results in an increased
risk of cancer, the EPA says.
(Reporting by Miguel Gutierrez; additional reporting by Alexandra Alper and Luis Rojas;
editing by Gabriel Stargardter, Simon Gardner
and Eric Beech)
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