Answer to Question #12585 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"
Category: Industrial Radiation — Industrial Applications
The following question was answered by an expert in the appropriate field:
I recently opened a wound dressing that had been gamma sterilized. Upon opening it, I discovered it was contaminated with a hair inside the packaging. Would the hair, dressing, or packaging be in any way radioactive or otherwise harmful? Also, would the wound dressing no longer be sterile?
This is an interesting question, which has a good answer. It would disturb me also to see a hair inside a sealed package; however, the hair would NOT present a problem. Think of the hair as another thread of the dressing inside the sealed package. After the dressing is sealed inside the air-tight package, dirt and germs can no longer enter the package. Any germs sealed inside of the package will be killed by the gamma-sterilization process. Germs on the hair would also be killed during the irradiation process. The gamma irradiation of the sealed package does not make the package, the dressing, or the hair radioactive or otherwise harmful. The dressing and air sealed inside the package will both become sterile in the irradiation process and will remain that way until the package is opened.
John Hageman, MS, CHP