nuclear-news

Censorship of Dr Helen Caldicott in Port Hope, Ontario

Last November, Dr. Caldicott was due to speak in Port Hope, Ont., when she found herself persona non grata there. Cameco, a producer of uranium fuel for nuclear power plants around the world, is a major employer in this town of 16,000 on Lake Ontario.

‘Barred’ from Port Hope: An interview with Dr. Helen Caldicott, rabble.ca, By Cathryn Atkinson| February 8, 2011 Renowned Australian physician and anti-nuclear activist Dr. Helen Caldicott has for four decades lectured around the world about the medical dangers inherent in the use of radioactive materials for nuclear energy and weapons. Her work was captured in the 1982 National Film Board of Canada short documentary, If You Love This Planet, which won an Oscar.

Last November, Dr. Caldicott was due to speak in Port Hope, Ont., when she found herself persona non grata there. Cameco, a producer of uranium fuel for nuclear power plants around the world, is a major employer in this town of 16,000 on Lake Ontario.

Dr. Caldicott explains what happened to rabble’s news editor Cathryn Atkinson.

Q – I got a one-sentence note that says you were banned from Port Hope in November. ……….

Dr. Dale Dewar and I co-wrote an article about the whole situation for the Globe and Mail and they won’t print it. It’s gone to the Ottawa Citizen, and if they turn it down… maybe we will send it to the Toronto Star. It’s a really good article, outlining all the medical things that you can’t do in a press conference.

This isn’t left wing or right wing, this is medicine. It’s conservative in that we are trying to conserve life.

Q – What is your message to people in Port Hope?

The message is that there has never been a scientifically validated, peer reviewed, epidemiological study of the people. Never. And the CNSC [ Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission] claims they’ve got some studies that say the people in Port Hope are healthy. The studies they’ve done, which I feel are very partial and not very scientific, do indicate a high incidence of brain cancer in women and children, lung cancer in women, leukemia in children, very high incidence of arteriovascular disease, which can be caused by radiation, and the like.

The indication is that such a study should and must be done, number one, by an independent university with independent funding.

The second thing, the urine of all the people in Port Hope must be tested for excretion of uranium and its daughters — radium and the like. Those people are simply being ignored and it really is a medical… not catastrophe, but [they need to be] researched and treated properly. Those who want to relocate, because many of them are still living on radioactive land, they need to be compensated by the government and the government needs to build a new village.   …………They’re going to do a big cleanup they say, they’re going to dig up at least 1.2 million cubic metres of radioactive waste, thereby exposing workers and the people in general, and bury it within the confines of Port Hope because no one else will take it, right next to Lake Ontario and it will leach radium for ever more. It concentrates in fish, and you can’t take it. The harbour is extremely radioactive and people are still fishing there!

‘Barred’ from Port Hope: An interview with Dr. Helen Caldicott | rabble.ca

February 10, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Canada, civil liberties