Firm Accused of Radioactive-Waste Infractions

A Sylmar company and its owner were charged Thursday with violating state laws regulating radioactive wastes in the first such case in Los Angeles history, City Atty. James K. Hahn said.

The six-count misdemeanor complaint charges the Tan Medical Group Inc. and Dr. Bienvenido Tan, 60, with violating the 8-year-old California Radioactive Control Regulations.

Tan, a minority investor in a failed smoke-alarm business that in its heyday used thousands of foil-covered, aspirin-sized radioactive pellets, acknowledged that he continued storing the pellets without a permit despite being cited by the county Department of Health and Human Services in 1981 and 1983.

The doctor said he heard of the criminal charges Thursday, just one day after he was notified that county health officials had issued the permit needed to legally dispose of the last 357 pellets containing the radioactive material Americium-241, and mere hours after the pellets were taken to an Orange County radioactive-waste transportation firm.

“This is remarkable,” Tan said. “I don’t know why they’re doing this to me.”

“Ever hear the old expression: ‘A day late and a dollar short?’ ” said Deputy City Atty. Keith W. Pritsker. “Well, Dr. Tan was several years late.”

The complaint accuses Tan and his company, which was doing business as Alarm Concepts, of possessing radioactive wastes without a license, storing them in an unauthorized facility, failing to post the area and label waste containers, and failing to notify county health officials before vacating a facility used for storage.

Maximum Penalty

Each violation carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

“This is the first criminal prosecution by the city attorney’s office under this portion of the California administrative code,” Deputy City Atty. Gwendolyn Irby said. “And we’re unaware of any similar case being successfully prosecuted anywhere else in the state.”

Alarm Concepts manufactured smoke detectors in Granada Hills until the business went under in 1984. A small safe containing 2,300 of the pellets was moved first to a Van Nuys storage facility and later to the medical clinic at 12823 Foothill Blvd. in Sylmar, Irby said.

County health inspectors cited Tan in January for improperly storing the items at the clinic, and about 2,000 of the pellets were shipped to a licensed waste facility in Hanford, Wash., she said.

But when inspectors returned to the clinic last May, they found 357 of the pellets still locked in the safe in an unused room, Irby said.

One pellet containing 0.3 microcurie of Americium-241 is used in most smoke alarms as part of the smoke-sensing device, Irby said.

“The presence of radioactive materials in smoke detectors is why it is illegal to dispose of them in normal trash and garbage,” Irby said. The law applies both to manufacturers and residential users, who are asked to send the alarm back to the manufacturer when it stops working or is no longer being used.

‘Potentially Dangerous’

“There was no immediate health hazard” from the pellets, Irby said. “But potentially dangerous radioactivity could have been released into the air if the Americium-241 had been consumed in a fire.”

Richard Gallego, manager of Thomas Gray Associates in Orange, the firm hired to transport the pellets to the Washington disposal site, confirmed that he received the materials Thursday morning. He said the pellets contained “extremely low-level radiation.” Gray said he doubted that the radiation would constitute a serious hazard to firefighters in the event of a fire.

But Joe Karbus, head of the occupational health and radiation division of the Department of Health and Human Services, disagreed.

“Ingestion and inhalation of radioactive materials is dangerous, and we’d rather be on the side of caution,” he said. “This guy violated the law. The hazards can be optimized or minimized, depending on which side of the fence you’re sitting.”

Tan and his company are scheduled for arraignment in Municipal Court on Aug. 19.