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Doctors threaten to resign over uranium mining

North Shore doctors threaten to resign en masse over uranium exploration The Montreal  Gazette December 4, 2009

MONTREAL ­ Quebec’s Liberal government must stop uranium exploration near Sept Îles and declare a moratorium on uranium mining activities across the province to avoid the mass resignation of 20 doctors in the North Shore town, a Sept Îles doctor said Friday.

“I want to work in a place where the government listens to citizens and where medical opinions are respected,” said Bruno Imbeault, a pulmonologist at the Centre Hospitalier et des Services Sociaux de Sept Îles.

Imbeault is one of 20 doctors at the Sept Îles hospital who signed an open letter to Health Minister Yves Bolduc pledging to resign unless uranium exploration activities in the area are stopped. The hospital employs 60 doctors in total.

The doctors oppose a proposed uranium mine at Kachiwiss Lake, about 13 kilometres from Sept Îles, because they believe it will harm the environment and the health of area residents…………………

“Fearing for the health of the population and our own personal health as well as that of our families (particularly our children), we, the signatories, have decided to leave the region, and many of us, the province…” said the letter, sent to Bolduc on Thursday.

The doctors are concerned about radon and other so-called “decay products” of uranium, which can contaminate air and water around a mine and cause lung cancer in humans. The letter adds that even residents of Montreal, Quebec City and Sherbrooke should be concerned about exposure to radiation because of widespread uranium mining across Quebec

North Shore doctors threaten to resign en masse over uranium exploration

December 10, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, Canada, health | antinuclear, nuclear, radiation, radioactive, uranium