Uranium threatens the health of mine workers. According to the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, uranium mining has been repsonsible for the largest collective exposure of workers to radiation. One estimate puts the number of workers who have died of lung cancer and silicosis due to mining and milling alone at 20,000.
Mine workers are principally exposed to ionising radiation from radioactive uranium and the accompanying radium and radon gases emmitted from the ore. Ionising radiation is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that extends from ultraviolet radiation to cosmic rays. This type of radiation releases high energy particles that damage cells and DNA structure, producing mutations, impairing the immune system and causing cancers.
Uranium mining companies, including WMC, claim that they can minimise the risk to "acceptable levels" by attention to proper ventilation of the shafts, and close monitoring of workers to radioactive exposure. However, each time the expert organisations make a decision they conclude that low levels of ionising radiation are more dangerous than was previously decided. On average, these organisations have concluded that the actual danger is twice as bad as they thought 12 years before. This means that people are legally exposed to a certain dose of radiation one year and the next year they are told that the dose was far too high. This has already happened at Roxby. The allowable dose rate for workers has been decreased from 50 to 20 milli Sieverts per year.
It is widely agreed in the scientific community that there is no safe level of radiation exposure. Because it takes more than 20 or more years for cancer produced by low levels of ionising radiation to become apparent, it is not easy to trace the cause. It is imperative that long term medical records be kept of all workers, residents and their children, including those conceived after leaving Roxby. At present there is no independent monitoring of the Roxby community. In 20 years time, when the health effects of uranium are emerging, the people of Roxby will be left to pick up the costs, just like the asbestos mining communities before them.
Similarly, WMC will bequeath a radioactive legacy in the form of a massive tailings dam, that will continue to pollute the surrounding ecosystem for tens of thousands of years. It will adversely impact upon animal and plant life in an arid region that is a precious, delicate and unique habitat.
WMC is extracting the raw material for an industry that is unsafe, unwanted and unnecessary. The toxic wastes produced as a result of nuclear fission for electricity generation are lethal for tens of thousands and often up to hundreds of thousands of years. There is still no known safe method of storing or disposing of these life threatening substances.
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