OTTAWA, June 2 (UPI) -- An Ottawa, Ontario, hospital lost a package containing 90 radioactive iodine-125 seeds last year, a newspaper's access to information request showed.
Details of the loss of a courier package by Ottawa Hospital last September were disclosed by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and released to the Ottawa Citizen in response to the request.
The seeds are about the size of a piece of rice, and are used in the treatment of prostate cancer. They are only about as radioactive as a dental X-ray, but their movements are tracked by the federal commission, the newspaper said.
They still have not been located, and by now would have lost about 95 percent of their radioactivity, officials said.
Hospital officials said an exhaustive search was made when the package went missing, and police were contacted after a week, said David Wilkins, a medical physicist at the hospital's cancer center and the radiation safety officer.
He told the newspaper operational changes have been made to prevent a repeat loss.
