Hosps ax gear in dirty bomb fear

IN A MOVE designed to protect New York against a dirty bomb attack, the city’s hospitals and universities will get rid of machines that contain radiologic material powerful enough to be used to make a bomb.

Twelve hospitals and schools have agreed to scrap the devices, known as irradiators, which are used for preparing blood transfusions and in cancer research. They’ll be replaced with safer machines that use X-ray technology.

“While it’s highly unlikely that an unauthorized person” could obtain it, “this radioactive isotope could be used in a dirty bomb terrorist attack,” city Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said Wednesday as she announced the plan.