BARC told to test researcher for radiation exposure by HC

The Delhi High Court has accepted a Haryana university researcher's plea accusing his colleagues of making him drink tea laced with a radioactive element and directed Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC) to conduct a test to ascertain any exposure to radiation.
Allowing Devi Deen Pandey's plea, Justice Rajiv Shakdher in a recent order directed BARC to conduct the test within a week and also sought the compliance report after it stated that it has the facility of Bio-Assay to test the level of radiation in human body.
"Having regard to the fact that the said facility is available with BARC to determine as to whether the petitioner has been exposed as alleged to contamination of Strontium 90 (SR 90), BARC is directed to conduct the test.....," justice Shakdher said in the order.

In his plea, Pandey has said that he had been running from one hospital to another including AIIMS for proper treatment, but without much relief.
Pandey, a post graduate in Environmental Sciences, had joined Hissar-based Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology at Hisar, a joint centre of BARC and the Board of Research on Nuclear Sciences, said in his plea filed through advocates Atul Wadera and Rekha Aggarwal.
The course in-charge did not want Pandey to continue with his research and asked him to leave, said the petition adding they mixed the "hazardous and radioactive Strontium in a liquid form in cups of tea which the petitioner used to consume without knowing that those were contaminated."

"Strontium 90 is a toxic radioactive substance having a half life of about 28 years, a beta rays emitter and is one of the most hazardous products ... Which if enters the human body, it accumulates within the bone marrow and over a period of time would cause certain type of cancers/tumors of the bone and of the blood cell....," it said.