The people checked into a hospital in Pachuca, 60 miles north of here and not far from the small town where the truck and the material, cobalt 60, were found Wednesday after disappearing and setting off international concern.
The material, hospital waste being transported from Tijuana to a storage repository near Mexico City, is often cited as a potential ingredient in a so-called dirty bomb, a combination of explosives and radioactive material. But Mexican and American officials said the theft appeared to be a common crime and not terror related.
There was enough material in the waste shipment to deliver a dose within minutes that would cause illness within a day or two, and with a few hours of exposure, a dose that would be lethal.
The stricken people had symptoms of radiation sickness, like nausea and dizziness, and doctors quickly quarantined them, while the federal police and army surrounded and cordoned off the hospital, located in Hidalgo State, said the Hidalgo health secretary, Pedro Luis Noble Monterrubio.
The federal Interior Ministry said officials were investigating the six people, their backgrounds, how they became sick and whether they were involved in the robbery or were townspeople who simply got too close to the material.
The cobalt 60 was found several hundred feet from the truck, apparently carried off by the thieves or by curious people in the area. There was enough material to quickly harm or even cause death, Mexican nuclear safety officials said, and they predicted that whoever moved it or was directly exposed to it would soon end up in a hospital. The theft prompted the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear monitor of the United Nations, to issue an alert.
Several members of a family who reported finding the container were checked and cleared by doctors on Wednesday.
In Hueypoxtla, the small town where the truck was abandoned, a local kindergarten suspended classes after faculty members complained that their health was threatened because the school was close to where the material was found.
The truck carrying the cobalt 60 was taken from a gas station where the driver had stopped. The material was in a box in a sealed container, but the thieves managed to breach both, and Mexican nuclear safety officials said the transport company violated procedures by not properly safeguarding the truck and its contents.
American officials said they were monitoring of the case and would offer help if Mexico asked.
From NY Times
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