The Minister for National Health Services (NHS) recently received a petition from the resident secretariat of Pakistan and advised the chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) to provide compensation to cancer patients cheated in the name of nuclear medicine treatment. He explained that the quality of life of numerous patients had been negatively affected because they had been injected with harmful radiation medicine.
This is a matter that has come before the apex court three times, once through suo motu and thereafter agitated by the petitioner. All three times however, the petitioner was forced to withdraw the matter from the apex court because of “security outfits” protecting the guilty party. Ever since this case surfaced, the petitioner has been harassed and pressurised.
This case shows how information is concealed even from the highest judicial forum in order to get a favourable verdict. The Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (Pinstech) had earlier tampered with facts to secure a clean chit from the SC.
While serving as an adviser in the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), I pleaded that this long-drawn issue needed the immediate consideration of the Supreme Court to find out how such a major health risk had been allowed to pass off as treatment. After overseeing the quality control procedure of these injections as a principal scientist at Pinstech, I had first informed the higher-ups about their contamination with undesirable radionuclides and then approached the SC with undeniable evidence.
After blowing the whistle on contaminated injections manufactured by the Pinstech, and highlighting that the injections were posing life threats to cancer patients, I am now receiving threats from anonymous callers, warning me against pursuing the case further.
Pinstech has cheated thousands of cancer patients and damaged their quality of life by injecting them with undesirable radionuclides like radioactive molybdenum99, ruthenium103 and strontium90 in the name of nuclear medicine diagnosis. Pinstech and PAEC have supplied a number of contaminated cancer diagnosis injection batches to various hospitals, which without a doubt went on to destroy thousands of lives.
These injections were contaminated with undesirable radionuclides — such as molybdenum-99, strontium-90 and ruthenium-103. These were produced by the fission of highly enriched uranium in the nuclear reactor at Pinstech. These irradiated the sensitive blood-producing bone marrow and could cause Leukaemia and other malignant diseases of the blood Each year, thousands of patients admitted to the 18 hospitals run by PAEC are administered these injections; in particular, the technetium 99m generator (also known as tc-generator), produced at Pinstech.
Pinstech and PAEC have supplied a number of contaminated injections to various hospitals, which without a doubt went on to destroy thousands of lives
These are used for imaging and studying organs such as the brain, heart muscles, thyroid, lungs, liver, gallbladder, kidneys as well as skeleton and blood to detect signs of cancer. However, instead of diagnosing cancers these injections are, ironically, feared to be cancerous themselves. They have been administered since 2011.
How many patients have been cheated and how many cancer patients have lost their lives due to this unethical practice? This malpractice requires an independent inquiry by non-PAEC scientists under a Judicial Commission to examine the impact of this injection. Not only the SC, but also the Pakistan nuclear regulatory authority (PNRA), which certifies such products, was kept in the dark about these injections.
However, an audit conducted by Moody International in February 2013 pointed out serious problems. One batch of tc-generator is sufficient for administering injections to at least 500 patients.
While I was deputed for quality control, I questioned the quality of all the batches produced since 2011, in a letter to Chief Justice (CJ) Iftekhar Muhammad Chaudhry in 2013, and an audit by Moody had endorsed this. Unfortunately, the findings were not shared during the suo motu case.
“Values/molybdenum-99 (0.6) was found much higher as per specified values (standards of European pharmacopeia of 0.1 percent). The register indicates that 37 generators were prepared from this batch and distributed to various hospitals,” reads the observation of Jehangir Ahmed, the auditor of moody international certification group on February 12, 2013.
The head of quality control, who while responding to the auditor, admitted and acknowledged his observation: “this problem has occurred due to carelessness and lack of training.”
In addition to the 18 cancer hospitals of the PAEC, several other hospitals use injections bought from Pinstech.
The results of quality control reports sent to various cancer hospitals and Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority were not based on actual analysis; they have been tampered with to appease the higher-ups so as to acquire certifications and licenses from PNRA.
This problem is like fitting an atomic bomb into the human body, resulting in the failure of organs as well as the entire nervous and immune systems… that too at a stage where it was yet to be diagnosed whether the patient was suffering from cancer or not. Once radioactive particles are inside the body, the internal organs have no protection and a tiny amount can prove fatally toxic.
Multiple cases of negligence have resulted in fines and prison time. A woman won $417 million after she proved in court that Johnson & Johnson was producing baby powder that was causing ovarian cancer. Similarly, a former Iowa State University scientist was sentenced to more than four years in prison when he falsely claimed that he had created a vaccine against HIV.
However, the perpetrators in Pakistan seem to have the best luck since they are still walking free.
The author is a scientist and former advisor Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. He has a master in physical chemistry and research experience in chemical engineering in Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. He is currently working as Member International Advisory Council of Nuclear Emergency Action Alliance (NEAA) Japan Nuclear
Published in Daily Times, July 3rd 2018.