On Tuesday 11 July Bruxelles-Propreté collected bins which showed a value of 26 microsievert, the threshold value being 20. These elevated values led to several emergency procedures, the concerned workers were examined and their clothes were destroyed — fortunately no one has been contaminated.
The contaminated bins have been isolated and are now kept in a fridge for at least a month, until the value drops below 20. Once the value is low enough the collected rubbish can be burned like uncontaminated waste.
Incidents like these happen several times a year in Brussels, and are most likely caused by medical waste coming from X-rays or chemotherapy.
