USC Fined $25,500 in Radiation Lapses, Told to Fund Fellowships

USC pleaded no contest Thursday to 15 misdemeanor violations of state laws regulating the use of radioactive materials and was fined $25,500 and ordered to fund three post-doctoral fellowships in radiation medicine.

In exchange for the pleas, 164 other counts involving the university and 10 of its researchers were dismissed, Deputy City Atty. Steven R. Tekofsky said. Each count carried a possible one-year jail term and/or $1,000 fine.

The criminal complaint--the first of its kind ever filed against a major research facility in California--followed inspections last November and January by the state Department of Health Services at USC’s health science campus and its Norris Cancer Hospital at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.

The charges included failing to check for leaks of radioactivity from small capsules of plutonium-238 and cesium-137 and other material, and failing to determine whether researchers and others had been over-exposed to iodine-125 and iodine-131.

Violations Described

Tekofsky said USC entered pleas in Los Angeles Municipal Court to violations occurring between early 1986 and early 1987, including failure to ensure that monthly contamination surveys were conducted, illegal transfer of radioactive material to a person not licensed to receive the materials, failure to properly train users of radioactive materials and failure to calibrate instruments used to detect radiation levels.

Calling the sentence “novel and creative,” Tekofsky said the university’s Department of Preventive Medicine will be required to advertise nationally for physicians who have completed an internship and at least one year of post-doctoral training in occupational medicine.

Joseph Van Der Meulen, vice president for health affairs at USC, said the university has the option of training one specialist over a three-year period or three different people at $25,000 a year.

In addition to the fine and fellowships, USC was placed on 18-months’ probation, Tekofsky said.

When the 179-count complaint was filed last March, City Atty. James Hahn criticized USC for “a pattern of incredibly cavalier conduct,” but Thursday, Tekofsky praised the university’s response to the charges.

‘We’re Very Satisfied’

“We’re very satisfied by the prompt attention that they gave to this problem,” the prosecutor said. “They treated it with the attention it deserved.”

Van Der Meulen said the university had spent “at least a couple of hundred thousand dollars” to bring its facilities into compliance with state law by adding personnel and restructuring its safety operations.

“We’ve had two subsequent inspections, and we’ve gotten very good marks,” Van Der Meulen said. “We feel we’ve done the major things that they wanted us to do.”

The researchers charged in the case--none of whom were in court Thursday-- were Michael Lai, professor of microbiology; Robert Nakamura, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology; Gunther Dennert, associate professor of microbiology; R.E.K. Fournier, associate professor of microbiology; Joseph R. Landolph, associate professor of microbiology; Daniel Levy, professor of biochemistry; Robert Maxson, assistant professor of biochemistry; Frederick Singer, professor of medicine, and Walter Wolf, professor of pharmacology.