What hazards does a dirty bomb pose?
A dirty bomb’s greatest threat is economic cost of decontamination. The blast from the “bomb” part of the device would kill whoever would be killed by the stick of dynamite — or whatever other explosive material is used. The “radioactive” part of the device would not be likely to cause any immediate deaths but, depending upon exposure and treatment, could increase the likelihood of cancer and other diseases decades later. (For more information, see Peter D. Zimmerman and Cheryl Loeb, “Dirty Bombs: The Threat Revisited,” http://hps.org/documents/RDD_report.pdf.
