Man’s toxic trinket sets off airport alarms


Compiled by KHOO JIAN TENG, C. ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN

A MAN in Liaoning, China, set off radiation detector alarms at an airport after an item he was carrying emitted high radiation levels, China Press reported.

The man, whose surname was Li, stepped through a radiation detector gate at the Dalian Zhou­shuizi International Airport and alarms began ringing.

Customs officers in protective gear inspected his luggage and discovered the radiation came from an amulet he was wearing.

Tests showed the amulet emitted a radiation dose rate of 168.6 microsieverts per hour, which is 1,686 times above the normal background level.

Further analysis revealed that it contained thorium-232, which has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the World Health Orga­­ni­­sa­tion’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.

When questioned, Li told Customs officers that a friend had given him the amulet.

The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.

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