Posted on 04/06/2002 5:12:56 PM PST by freespeech1
By CHELSEA J. CARTER, Associated Press
SANTA ANA, Calif. (April 6, 2002 3:20 p.m. EST) - Officials said that a chemist arrested after radioactive materials were found in his home is not suspected of any terrorist activities.
Riad Mohamad Ahmed, 62, was just a sloppy commercial chemist with a record of run-ins with regulators dating to the 1980s, officials said Friday.
Ahmed, who pleaded no contest last year to illegal possession of radioactive material that resulted in a lab explosion, was arrested Thursday for allegedly possessing such material again. He was released Friday on $50,000 bail.
"I have great concerns because Dr. Ahmed has repeatedly demonstrated a matter of utter disregard for the health and safety of the public and his employees, and for the appropriate handling of radioactive material," said Orange County Deputy District Attorney Nick Thompson.
A telephone call to Ahmed's home was not answered Friday, and court filings do not list an attorney.
"He was sloppy. He had a fire and explosion at one (lab) ... and a problem at another one," said Dan Suter, a field specialist with the Environmental Protection Agency who oversaw the cleanup of Ahmed's labs.
Ahmed was arrested after a routine probation check at his Westminster home turned up evidence of radioactive carbon 14, which is used to tag and trace chemicals. The chemical contains low levels of radiation and is found naturally, but has been linked to cancer when ingested or inhaled.
Investigators said the amount of carbon 14 found at Ahmed's home exceeded what he had been previously licensed to dispose of. They say he had used carbon 14 in such work as research on hair products, and had prepared it for use by commercial research labs.
Ahmed pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor for the 1997 explosion at a laboratory in Gardena. His state license to handle radioactive material was revoked and the lab closed.
In that incident, Ahmed was working with carbon 14 at the California Bionuclear Corp. when a small explosion and fire occurred, said Daniel Wright, Los Angeles County deputy district attorney. The federal government later labeled the building a Superfund cleanup site.
Ahmed was charged in 1986 with mishandling radioactive, flammable and explosive materials at another lab. He pleaded no contest, served 60 days in jail and was fined $15,000.
Ahmed told prosecutors he was born in Cairo, immigrated to the United States in the 1970s and earned a doctorate in bionuclear chemistry from the University of Southern California.
Why do I instinctively doubt the source? I can't figger it out.
Ahmed pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor for the 1997 explosion at a laboratory in Gardena. His state license to handle radioactive material was revoked and the lab closed.
I wonder if this was really an accident. Maybe he was well-paid to get that lab shut down.
Wouldn't be surprised if we hear about this weirdo again some time in the future.
And not in a positive way, either.
Leni
The problem is, this guy has a doctorate and real credentials. How many other labs are going to hire this guy and get blown up? This guy would never be a disruptor paid by a Muslim country, would he? (sarcasm)
How many more times are we going to read about this guy and his mysterious "accidents"?
I'm more afraid of my microwave oven.
They search his home earlier this week and found what was described as Trace quantities in his home. But it exeeced his "license." But notice the lack of any metion of QUANTITY here.
Ooo, its radioactive. I'm scared.
Actually, there IS such a license category defined. It is the quantity of radioactive material that ANY citizen can have in his possession--the number of microcuries varies by type of isotope. I don't know the current name but it used to be called the "General Purpose" license. To possess quanties in excess of the GP license amount requires jumping through added safety hoops with the regulatory agencies.
That said, carbon-14 is about as harmless a radioactive material as one can find--VERY low energy beta particle emitter. One pretty much has to eat it to get any sort of exposure.
Thanks for the info. Iv'e heard advanced licenses are generally given for certain groups of isotopes (and quantities), but for a disposal license, more categories (and quantities) are required .
But my comment about quantities was referring to the lack of quantities mentioned in the story. Of course they won't give us the info you did. They don't know or would ignore it cause it defuses the impact of the story that they seek. The goal of this story was to scare people-- not to inform.
Thanks. I knew I had read this somewhere.
hey no problem, it's ok, the taxpayers will clean up the Superfund site. It should only cost a few million. Heck, the guy's no threat. He knows what he's doing. He's got a degree doesn't he? Just let him post a little bail and let him out. He's got important work to do.
Hey, have a sense of humor already! Please reread my post. Name three things disturbing about the source of this piece:
By CHELSEA J. CARTER, Associated Press
Huh? Re-read the following excerpt from the story:
Ahmed told prosecutors he was born in Cairo, immigrated to the United States in the 1970s and earned a doctorate in bionuclear chemistry from the University of Southern California.
This is blown (no pun intended) way out of proportion. There's a distinct lack of hard information in the story.
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