nuclear-news

Navajo’s continuing cancer danger from uranium mines

Navajos will continue to be exposed to uranium and its decay products, radon and radium. This means that they are at great risk for bone, liver, breast, and lung cancer, among other health problems….

Uranium Mines Still Pose Serious Health Threat on Navajo Land, Web Wire 12 April 12,  In 2010, a Navajo cattle rancher named Larry Gordy discovered an abandoned uranium mine in the middle of his grazing land in Cameron, AZ, according to the New York Times. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) visited the site and found dangerously high levels of uranium, but the agency has yet to begin the clean-up.

The EPA found that the radioactivity there measured one million counts per minute, meaning that two days there would expose a person to more external radiation than the Nuclear Regulatory Commission considers safe for an entire year. A dose would lead directly to malignant tumors and other health problems.

Despite the site’s seclusion, evidence of the human presence there is
clear: crushed beer cans and shell casings litter the ground. Cattle
droppings also dot the area near the mine, meaning that people eating
those livestock are being subjected to radiation through their food as
well.

Since first seeing the Cameron site in 2010, EPA has still not placed
warning signs around the area.

The mine in Cameron is one of hundreds of such sites identified across
27,000 square miles of Navajo territory in Arizona, Utah, and New
Mexico, according to the New York Times. Authorities say the slow
clean-up process is hindered by the cost—hundreds of millions of
dollars—and bureaucratic disagreements.

Until the sites are cleaned, however, Navajos will continue to be
exposed to uranium and its decay products, radon and radium. This
means that they are at great risk for bone, liver, breast, and lung
cancer, among other health problems….
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=155319

April 13, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, indigenous issues, Uranium, USA