The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection wants to know more about radium that turned up last month in Norristown. It was found January 19 when a load of construction debris set off radiation alarms at Waste Management’s Norristown Transfer Station.  The radium was in an antique medical kit, and the debris was traced to a roll-off bin from the Hershey’s Mill Retirement Community in West Chester.

The DEP says four capsules found inside a small lead safe contain about five times the radium in modern medical sources, equivalent to having more than 100 CT Scans at once, and they could cause skin burns and other health problems.