In this undated photo taken from the New York State Department of Health website, an example of the decorative tissue box like the ones removed from a local Bed Bath and Beyond store is shown.
Four metal tissue boxes contaminated with low levels of radioactive material were recovered from a Lancaster County store Wednesday, officials said.
But two more were sold last month at the store, Bed Bath & Beyond, 2350 Lincoln Highway East, and state officials want the owners to turn them in.
"They're not going to hurt anyone or contaminate anything, but we can't have them out there," Lisa Kasianowitz, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said Friday. "The radiation is above what's considered acceptable."
Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman David McIntyre said the Dual Ridge Boutique tissue-box covers pose little to no risk to human health.
"If someone has one of these, they could receive a small radiation dose from it," he said.
For example, he said, someone keeping one of the boxes on a vanity in a bathroom and spending about 30 minutes a day near it for a year would receive the equivalent of a couple of chest X-rays.
"There's no real health threat from these, but we advise people to return them," he said.
NRC officials earlier this month notified Bed Bath & Beyond that a shipment of the metal boxes, which were manufactured in India, was found to contain low levels of cobalt-60 radioactive material.
Cobalt-60 is a manmade material used in medical devices and for other industrial applications.
The contamination was first discovered in California when two packages bound for Bed Bath & Beyond stores in Santa Clara and San Jose containing four tissue holders triggered radiation alarms at truck scales, according to a Jan. 6 report posted on the NRC website.
Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. said in a statement Thursday that its Dual Ridge tissue holder has been carried in about 200 of its stores since July.
Only the latest shipment, which contained 220 boxes, is believed to be contaminated.
But the company said it was recalling all the tissue holders and asking customers who bought them to return them for a full refund.
The contaminated boxes were shipped to stores across the country, including six boxes that were sent to the Lancaster County store.
An employee of the store on Lincoln Highway East declined to comment Friday evening.
Kasianowitz said DEP officials removed four boxes from the local store Wednesday. They were taken to a facility that handles radioactive waste for disposal.
The other two boxes were sold last month — one on Dec. 9 and the other on Dec. 19.
"We're thinking people might have bought them as Christmas gifts, so the people who bought them might not be the ones who have them," she said.
Anyone with information on the location of the boxes is urged to call the DEP Bureau of Radiation Protection between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at 787-2480 or the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency anytime at 651-2001.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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