Lithuanians are indestructible…

From PopBitch, quite a while back:

Vidmantas Sungalai.
Sungalai, a 41-year-old Lithuanian truck driver, was pulled over by police while driving his truck down the centre of a highway near Vilnius. He had 7.27 grams per litre of alcohol in his body – 18 times the legal driving limit. (3.5g/l is usually lethal). The police said Vidmantas “was of high spirits and grinning the whole time.” He said he’d been out drinking the night before and tried to freshen up for his drive by downing a beer for breakfast.

This puts me in the mind of Alex Sandula, a Lithuanian I’ve only met once. Alec worked with my grandfather at Atomic Energy of Canada‘s Chalk River Laboratories during the early days. They both worked in maintenance, not with the PhDs. My grandfather often told me stories about Alex, who was “quite a scrapper”, and “the kind of man who would throw a hammer at you if he lost his temper”.

The best story though, was about how there was once a blockage in the pneumatic tubes that were used to move radioactive pellets, pieces of fuel rod called “rabbits”, around the facility–the tubes, of course, were designed to move the material with out requiring people to handle it, or be exposed to it. Apparently one of these ricocheted out, and Alex picked up the pellet and put it in his pocket. These were not mildly radioactive pellets. Needless to say, this was back in the days before radation worker safety was quite the priority it is today.

Later measurements estimate that Alex was exposed to radiation at about 3000rad/hr in his hand“In the moments before he reached a monitor, heard the alarm, and dropped the rabbit, contamination transmitted at 3000 rad/hour deposited in the creases of his fingers.” — ‘A Working Knowledge of the Insensible? Radiation Protection in Nuclear Generating Stations, 1962–1992″, Joy Parr, “Comparative Studies in Society and History” v48. Link. For comparison purposes a dose of 450 rads will be lethal to 50% of of the population. Where he had held the pellets in his hands, the flesh eventually just sort of melted off, in a hideous radiation burn. Surgeons had to remove a considerable portion of his hand. At the time I met him, decades later, his hand was a pretty twisted mass of scar tissue, but still had some use. He eventually lost it. Unbelievably, as far as everyone involved was concerned, he survived. He had a history of sores errupting on his arm for years, but suffered no long term ill effects (i.e. nothing lethal) from these.

The first time I met him, he was an apparently healthy crusty old man (albeit with wicked scars on his hand). The fact that he never developed any kind of cancer apparently shocked doctors more than the fact that he wasn’t just killed outright.

Between Sandula and Sungalai, I’m starting to think Lithuanians just can’t be killed.

As an aside, when I went to work at Chalk River Labs, (in the “Math and Computation Branch”) I had to undergo Atomic Radiation WorkerApparently I am showing my age here, and the kids today call this a “Nuclear Energy Worker” ever since 2000’s “Nuclear Safety Control Act and Regulations” came into force, according to this. certification, even though I wasn’t normally working in the “hot” area. (I also had to get the first level of government security clearance, which was a very interesting and kind of scary thing I might talk about some other time.)

A significant part of the ARW certification is safety training. Part of this training is relatively procedural stuff–how the dosimeter badges work, and why you have to wear them, etc. Discussion of how the dosimeter works, and what levels of exposure people are allowed to be exposed to, etc, is all very “occupational health and safety”As an aside, I think it’s really funny that AECL’s health and safety policy says they will “We limit exposure to radioactive materials to be as low as reasonably achievable, taking into account relevant social and economic factors.”. This does, though, lead eventually to discussions of lethal dosages, and some “this will never actually happen, but could” black comedy. I’m fairly certain the official ARW curriculum doesn’t include the “if the circle on the dosimeter turns black, you might as well call your mom and girlfriend to say goodbye” line, for instance.

The dosimeter/dosage stuff is done in one of the mornings of the ARW training, and ends at a break for lunch. Apparently the instructors find it funny to end with some photos of what happens to people when they are exposed to harmful doses of radiation–thinking that these disgusting images are a nice lead in to lunch.

I think I kind of ruined the effect though, when I was handed the pictures of hideous wounds that they described as resulting from exposure to “several times the lethal dose” and said “Oh, I know this guy. That’s my grandfather’s friend Alex!” Even though the photos were just black and white shots of the hands, it was pretty easy to tell.

Knowing that the man behind these hideous injuries had survived into old age took the sting out their attempt to reinforce through fear. Seeing serious radiation burns right before lunch was still pretty gross, though.