Originally Posted by
SparseFlyer
Aren't a lot of pharma materials/medical devices equipped with radioactive/nuclear/biohazard material (sorry, not my field so the terms are probably poorly used and or chosen)?
I would assume that, at least as far as commercial cargo is concerned, that the two would be somewhat intertwined.
There is lots of nuclear material that has nothing to do with pharma as well as lots of pharma that is not nuclear. On the prairies you find it in equipment used to xray pipelines.
There can be an overlap between pharma and nuclear material. Heath Canada regulates one and CNSC regulates the other. My experience has been the regulators get together and decide for a given license who is going to take the lead and then the other regulator is still involved but works through the other. I am more familiar with the issues of making the stuff. I suspect Transport Canada has to be involved in the mix when it comes to how its transported.
This video is from the UK in the 1950s and shows a novel British approach....
They way it is done these days is the generator sits in a box that has been lined with interlocking lead bricks. At that point you can hand it off to FedEx if you wanted to.
There are companies the specialise in logistics of all types of pharma. ATS (the ground handling people) have a division called ATS Healthcare that specializes in pharma requiring special handling and temperature controls.