Months after a CT scanner laboratory opened next door to the clinic where she worked, Paulette Valentine began to think something was wrong.
An X-ray lab opened next door to Paulette Valentine’s clinic. Within months, she began to suspect something was going wrong.
Months after a CT scanner laboratory opened next door to the clinic where she worked, Paulette Valentine began to thinksomething was wrong.
Employees at St. George Endocrine and Diabetes Clinic, where Valentine was clinic director, were increasingly sick. She suspected radiation.
State law had required shielding between the new CT lab — and the harmful radiation from itsX-ray machinery — and Valentine’s clinic, and plans for the renovations before it moved in had called forlead-lined drywall.
But a hole cut into a wall revealed only drywall and insulation — and that Valentine was right.
The result, a new lawsuit contends, is that 27 people — including three children — were exposed to excessive levels of radiation and suffered headaches, nausea, dizziness, fatigue, malaise and drowsiness as a result.
One of those patients has since been diagnosed with leukemia, the lawsuit filed Monday in 5th District Court states, and all the plaintiffs now have an increased risk of getting iatrogenic cancer, or cancer introduced by medical treatments.
(Fifth District Court) In an image included in a newly filed lawsuit, a man is seen standing next to a hole cut into a wall between Intermountain St. George Imaging Center and the St. George Endocrine and Diabetes Clinic. The hole, cut on or around July 3, 2024, showed there was no lead shielding between the two businesses, the lawsuit said.
Attorney Nathan Langston said it will be a “very long time” before his clients learn the full impacts of their exposure to ionizing radiation, which can damage DNA and cells and cause cancer.
Intermountain Healthcare, which wanted to open its Intermountain St. George Imaging Center at 1424 E. Foremaster Dr., had set out in 2022 to convert a former medical clinic office space for it. The company knew, the lawsuit said, that expensive renovations would be needed to comply with state laws, and it hired Medical Physics Consultants, Inc., a business that specializes in developing such plans.
Intermountain had worked with the consultants before, the suit said. After getting a construction blueprint from them, it hired CRC Construction, Inc., to bring the plan to fruition.
CRC Construction then subcontracted with B & S Drywall, Inc., to install lead-lined drywall, as outlined in the plan.
And in July 2023, after construction concluded, Medical Physics Consultants’ testing showed the barrier had been installed correctly and was working, the lawsuit states.
By April 2024, Valentine suspected it wasn’t. Medical Physics Consultants, the lawsuit asserts, “either didn’t do the post-construction scatter survey in July 2023 and fabricated the results or failed to do a proper scatter survey.”
It accuses CRC Construction Inc., B & S Drywall Inc., Medical Physics Consultants and their testing employee of negligence.
It further alleges that one of the two construction contractors were “financially enriched by getting paid for lead-lined walls but not installing them.” Lead-lined drywall is eight to 10 times more expensive than the drywall installed at the CT lab, the lawsuit asserts.
Attorneys for defendants CRC Construction, Inc., B&S Drywall, Inc., Medical Physics Consultants, Inc., and their testing employee were not yet listed on the court docket. The Salt Lake Tribune emailed or called each company to request comment, but was unable to reach any representatives Tuesday afternoon.
Concerns and more testing
When Valentine first raised concerns about possible radiation exposure, Intermountain sent out an emergency management employee. His test found radiation within the clinic, the lawsuit states.
Employees at the clinic “became concerned for their health and wanted answers,” which prompted Intermountain to review the scatter survey conducted by Medical Physics Consultants, the lawsuit states.
Intermountain concluded, based off that initial report, that concerns “must not be warranted,” according to the lawsuit.
The clinic employees then raised their concerns with Utah Occupational Safety and Health, which led to further testing.
On May 15, 2024, the state Division of Waste Management and Radiation Control found “scatter radiation exposure exceeded the maximum amount of radiation exposure allowed for members of the public,” according to the lawsuit.
It added that employees at the adjacent clinic had been exposed to ionizing radiation for almost a year.
A letter from the division sent to the director of the CT lab, quoted in the lawsuit, said that if the shielding plan had been followed, “the facility should not expose individuals outside of the CT room to the levels of radiation that were measured during the [May 15, 2024] survey.”
Follow-up testing from Medical Physics Consultants confirmed the state’s results.
According to the lawsuit, Medical Physics Consultants sent the same employee responsible for the first round of testing to conduct the new survey.
The employee wasoverheard asking the lab director “where she should take her measurement readings within the St. George Endocrine and Diabetes Clinic,” according to the suit.
That question, the lawsuit states, “was notable because, presumably, [the employee] had done the testing less than a year previous and would, presumably, know where to test within the clinic.”
What are the risks?
The state’s testing found the average radiation exposure in the hallway adjacent to the X-ray room was .44 rem, Langston said. The state allows businesses to expose members of the public to a maximum of 0.1 rem per year.
If someone was exposed to the level of radiation in the hallway five days a week, during every scan performed, their annual exposure would grow to more than 7.9 rem, he said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, exposure to low-levels of radiation doesn’t cause immediate health impacts, but can increase the risk of cancer over one’s lifetime. Studies show the risk for cancer increases alongside the dose of radiation, the CDC says, meaning the higher the radiation, the greater the risk.
“About 99 percent of individuals would not get cancer as a result of a one-time uniform whole-body exposure of 100 millisieverts (10 rem) or lower,” the CDC said. “At this dose, it would be extremely difficult to identify an excess in cancers caused by radiation when about 40 percent of men and women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cancer at some point during their lifetime.”
Yet, one staffer exposed to excessive radiation in the clinic has already been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing treatment, Langston said, “which obviously would concern the others that have been exposed that this might be something that is in their future.”
The CT lab closed July 2, 2024, until “further notice.” Intermountain did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon, but the center’s website indicates it is now open.
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