January 14, 2012 Retailer Bed, Bath & Beyond Inc. released a statement on Thursday announcing that the company is recalling all Dual Ridge Metal boutique tissue holders sold in about 200 of the chain's stores since July. The IEMA says the product has been located at stores in the Chicago area. Customers who bought the products are asked to return them for a full refund.
The Illinois Emergency Management Agency Bureau of Radiation Safety says there is “no immediate threat” posed by the decorative tissue box holders. IEMA is working with federal officials and Bed, Bath and Beyond representatives to identify and remove the contaminated tissue box holders.
According to the IEMA Press Release, four tissue box holders were found to have elevated radiation levels at the Chicago Bed, Bath & Beyond store located at 1800 N. Clybourn. In addition, the Wilmette store at 3232 Lake Ave., turned up three more of the contaminated tissue box holders. Other bath accessory items in the product line were also tested but evidenced no signs of radioactive contamination.
The tissue holders were sold in more than 20 states, including California, and online since July 2011. The contamination was identified during routine surveillance operations, according to the NRC web site. Radiation alarms were triggered at truck scales in Santa Clara and San Jose California. Officials from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) said the recalled product contains man-made cobalt-60, which is used in medical devices and industrial applications.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission stated that scrap metal containing cobalt-60 could have strayed into a metal load smelted in India and been incorporated in these products.
A Spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, David McIntyre said Bed, Bath & Beyond had pulled the tissue holders from its store shelves.
McIntyre said there is little to no risk to human health but it’s better to avoid unnecessary exposure to radiation.
“If someone has one of these, they could receive a small radiation dose from it,” McIntyre said. For example, he said someone keeping one of the boxes on a vanity in the bathroom and spending about 30 minutes a day near it for a year would receive the equivalent of a couple of chest x-rays."
In July, a GAO report found that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security faces difficulties in developing new technologies to detect nuclear and radiological materials. After harsh criticism from lawmakers and independent auditors for rushing the Advanced Spectroscopic Portal (ASP), technology into the field without proper testing, the DHS scrapped the program and taxpayers were out $230 million.
However, the DHS said the 13 ASP monitors that had already been built and purchased would be deployed, but did not say where.
New Jersey's Port Newark, where the products entered the U.S. was the first seaport in the nation to get the ASP detectors in 2006. However, the radiation was not detected until the packages reached California.
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