A Cancer Patient’s Radioactive Remains Are Raising Fears of Contamination

About half of all Americans are cremated when they die. So when a 69-year-old man was cremated in Arizona in 2017, it didn't seem out of the ordinary — until doctors learned that his body may have put others at risk of radiation exposure.

In 2017, the man was admitted to a hospital for low blood pressure treatment, according to a new research letter published in JAMA.

About half of all Americans are cremated when they die. So when a 69-year-old man was cremated in Arizona in 2017, it didn't seem out of the ordinary — until doctors learned that his body may have put others at risk of radiation exposure. In 2017, the man was admitted to a hospital for low blood pressure treatment, according to a new research letter published in JAMA.