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NT denies uranium mine to blame for cancer | National News | News.com.au

NT denies uranium mine to blame for cancer

news.com.au By Tara Ravens

AAP

THE Northern Territory Government has rejected any link between Australia’s largest uranium mine and higher levels of cancer among Aboriginal people living nearby.

The disturbing findings are part of a preliminary discussion paper into the health affects of Energy Resources of Australia’s (ERA) Ranger mine, which is surrounded by the world heritage-listed Kakadu National Park.

The NT Government says the cancers found in nearby Aboriginal communities are of the type caused by lifestyle and not radiation.

However the Commonwealth’s peak indigenous research body, which commissioned the report, says its discovery of a near doubling in the overall cancer incidence rate, compared to other areas of the territory, is a cause for “serious concern”.

It wants an investigation into a possible link with the mine.

“There is an excess of cancer in the Aboriginal communities of the Kakadu region,” says the leaked report from the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies (AIATSIS)………………………The report is the first to examine health issues since ERA first started mining at Ranger in the 1980s, despite more than 120 recorded “mishaps” including leakages, spillages and breaches of regulations……………………..traditional owners in the region welcomed the report’s findings.

“Scant attention has been paid to the health effects of this development … these health effects include the social and cultural impacts of mining,” said the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, representing the Mirarr People.

One of the report’s four authors, Alan Cass from Sydney University, said he stood by the report’s cancer findings.

“This was exploratory research and the report indicates the limitations of the data collected,” he said.

NT denies uranium mine to blame for cancer | National News | News.com.au

January 13, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized | antinuclear, nuclear, radioactive, uranium