Radiological Polition In Jadugora Uranium Mines

Radiological Pollution from Uranium Mines-Jadugora

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Conference on Health & Environment. New Delhi - 6th-9th July 1998. Centre for Science & Environment. Session - 8. Radiological Pollution & Health.

By: Xavier Dias.

RADIOLOGICAL POLLUTION FROM URANIUM MINES Jadugora - Jharkhand 1 “ One of the central problems in the debate about the nuclear fuel cycle, is ignorance “ Dr. Stella Swanson, research scientist.

With the Indigenous people of the world raising the question of radiation at uranium mine sites, the nuclear debate is taking a new turn. The subject of radiation at uranium mine sites, never received due attention in the nuclear debate, probably because uranium is not mined where the debaters live. 80% of the world’s uranium mines, are on the lands of the Indigenous people1, here in India 100% of our uranium is being mined in Jharkhand and Meghalaya (1997), -both being Indigenous homelands. But radioactivity recognizes no class, caste or State boundaries, and the long term affects of radiation from uranium mining on public health and future are so serious that every thinking person has got to know and measure the risks involved. This presentation is a case for concern. 2 Uranium Mining: Uranium is a metal and like any other metal is found in the earth (also on the ocean beds) in extremely tiny proportions in the form of uranium ore. In the Jadugora, Narwaphar & Batin mines in Singhbhum, Jharkhand (Bihar), uranium is mined from underground mines, 1600 – 2000 ft. below the surface. Here the ratio of the mineral to the ore is only .02%. Uranium extraction and its production are a State monopoly under the control of the Uranium Corporation of India Ltd., UCIL coming under the Department of Atomic Energy. After being mined the ore is brought to the surface and sent to a Mill which ‘purifies’ it. This is done by a chemical process called leaching, where an acid or an alkaline (depending on the pH factor) is poured over heaps of the ore taking the uranium concentrate to its bottom. This uranium concentrate commonly called ‘yellow cake’ is packed and sent over a thousand km, to the Nuclear Fuel Complex at Hyderabad for further purification into fuel rods (see fig. 1). The Radioactive Tailings: After extraction of the yellowcake, the left over sands called ‘uranium tailings’ are then mixed with water and flushed to the tailing dam through pipes to be stored. Uranium is not the only radioactive metal found in the ore. There are a dozen radioactive materials called the decay products of uranium in this ore, but at the This paper has been written with information given to me by activists of J.O.A.R, and documentation from MINEWATCH London, WISE Amsterdam & BIRSA Chaibasa. 2 With this paper a set of transparencies and photographs will be screened. 1

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purification stage in the Mill, only the uranium is extracted, 85% of these radioactive elements still remain in the tailings2. all of which are extremely harmful to living things. The most important of these are: Thorium-230, radium-226, radon-222 (radon gas) and the radon progeny including polonium 210. 3 These highly radioactive tailings have a very long life, (see figure 2) going into thousands of years. The longest of them thorium-230 whose half life (what is half life? See fig. 2) is 80,000 years, in human terms, forever. It decays to produce radium-226, which in turn produces radon gas. To understand and comprehend the question of pollution in uranium mining, it is very important to learn about the behaviour of these radioactive metals, but before that let us see what exactly is radiation. What is Radiation? Science teaches us that everything is made of tiny little particles called atoms. They are too small to be seen even under a powerful microscope. When a substance is radioactive it means that its atoms are exploding (sub-microscopically) and throwing off pieces of themselves with great force. This process is called ‘radioactive decay’. During radioactive decay two types of tiny electrically charged particles are given off traveling very fast. They are alpha and beta. Some radioactive materials are alpha emitters, and others are beta emitters. In addition to alpha and beta, highly energetic rays called gamma rays are also emitted. Gamma rays are not material particles at all, but a form of pure energy, very similar to a x-rays travelling at the speed of light. Radiation is dangerous because it can do great harm to a living cell by breaking its chemical bonds at random and disrupting the cell’s genetic instruction. That is how you develop cancers. In uranium mining you have external radiation and internal radiation. Internal radiation is of particular concern, because most of the chemical emissions in uranium mining are from Alpha particles. In internal radiation, Alpha particles like canon balls have less penetrating power, but more impact, and right now is of more concern to us as we debate the uranium mining issue. They stay inside our bodies and from within our bodies they continue their decay process, damaging cells, and obviously the life of their host i.e. the miner, whose life is just a fraction of their half-life For exposure to radiation you have to have contact with the chemical emission. Exposure is through breathing, eating or drinking, or skin contact. For radiation to have a harmful effect on health it depends on: -the impact of the doze; -how much for how long; -the route into your body, -other chemicals to which you are exposed to, and your individual characteristics, sex, age, nutrition status, family traits, life style and state of health. Thorium-230 one of the metals left back in the tailings is a uranium decay product with the longest lifetime (see fig. 2), it decays to produce Radium-226. Radium-226 is one of the more dangerous of the uranium decay products. It is a radioactive heavy metal, and a potent Alpha emitter. As it decays, it produces radon gas. As a chemical radium is similar to calcium, so when ingested, it migrates to the bones, teeth and breast milk. It is a bone seeker and is also readily taken up by vegetation. In aquatic plants it can be concentrated by factors of hundreds or even thousands3.

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The discoverer of radium, and Nobel laureate, Madame Curie and her daughter died of cancer. In the first half of this century radium was used to make a luminous paint, i.e. used in watch dials, that glows in the dark. Many young women who used the paint in their work died from cancers of the bone or head. Microscopic amounts of radium that were unintentionally swallowed, by licking the paintbrush, caused the bone cancers. The head cancers resulted from radon gas generated from the ingested radium inside the women’s bodies. It is even considered dangerous to wear a watch with radium painted dials, because some of the radium decay products give off intense gamma rays even more powerful than x-rays. Because radium kills living cells in the body, it is sometimes used in cancer therapy, to destroy unwanted tumors. Radon-222 the gas and its progenies are a very powerful carcinogenic agent, even small doses over a long time can cause lung cancer. The underground miner is constantly exposed to radon gas, which is an inert gas, odorless, heavier than air and stays at the mine bed until sucked up into the atmosphere by exhaust machines, where it floats around the habitat. Uranium mills and mines are always built close together to cut transport cost and therefore this radon gas from the mines and the tailing ponds keeps floating around the townships and villages. Radon also dissolves easily in water and can thus be carried into the wells and ponds of the villagers. Since mining discharges a lot of under ground water this is one of the chief ways in which radioactive waste enters the food chain and affects human health (see fig. 3). Radon has a comparatively short half-life 3.8 days, but in this short time it can travel thousands of miles, and do immense damage. Because radon is radioactive, it decays, producing seven radioactive decay products called radon progeny; bismuth, polonium and lead being among them. These solid radioactive materials attach themselves to tiny dust particles and droplets of water vapour floating in the air. Radon gas is exhaled as easily as it is inhaled but the accompanying radon progenies (bismuth, polonium and lead) stay back, in the linings of the lungs, virtually ‘bombarding’ the delicate bronchial tissues with alpha, beta and gamma rays. Bismuth and lead emit beta particles and intense gamma rays, while Polonium emits alpha particles that may irreparably damage the bronchial tissue. Polonium-210 is a known carcinogen and from the lungs it can also enter the blood stream and eventually lead to blocked arteries causing cardio-vascular problems. There is no known filter or gas mask for radon. For these above reasons, uranium mining’s contribution to the increase in the radioactivity of this planet has become a very important factor in the nuclear debate. We have to know about the risk of uranium tailings and how they are stored and if there is ever a safe way of storing them. Besides the quality (radioactivity) of the tailings, the other question is their quantity. For the production of uranium huge amounts of radioactive waste solid, liquid and gases are created (see fig.3). We have an IAEA warning that says: ‘Here we have an industry, in which the number of deaths attributable to radiation, far exceeds that in all other parts of the nuclear industry put together’4. The method of storage and the improbability of a safe storage, for those thousand of years have a

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implication for our future generations and therefore we must not leave this important matter to the politicians and the ‘managers’ of uranium companies. Storage of the radioactive tailings: This is what scientists say about the storage of tailings. ‘Our research indicates that 4 meters of clay are required to reduce radon exhalation by 99%, and the remaining 1% is still about four times the typical soil radon exhalation rate’5. What are the standards maintained at Jadugora by UCIL? In Jadugora, UCIL dumps these waste in two tailing dams, constructed on the rice fields of the Adivasis at village Dumridih, both dams are since saturated, and therefore a third tailing dam is presently under construction at adjacent village Chatijkocha. At the two saturated tailing ponds in Jadugora, there is no clay cover nor concrete bed (to prevent underground water contamination), nor are the tailings kept under water as required by international standards. Each tailing dam, which is about the size of two football fields, continue to serve as a thoroughfare for the Adivasis, and in summer the dry heat and strong winds (80-100 km.) takes the tailings over a wide area. Contaminated water seeps into the underground, and we can only guess how far it can reach. In the monsoons the dam overflows into the neighboring fields and streams. Even if the tailing ponds are covered, what about the radon that is continuously being emitted by the mines and mill? Apart from dumping radioactive waste from the mines and mill, Jadugora is becoming the dump yard of radioactive and toxic waste from other parts of the country as well. Highly dangerous radioactive waste from the Nuclear Fuel Complex at Hyderabad is brought back to be dumped in the tailing dams of Jadugora. The activists of Jharkhandi’s Organisation Against Radiation J.O.A.R., claim that radioactive waste from other centers of the country, are also brought here to be dumped, this includes ‘radio medicines’ (gamma radiation) and their containers. The activists claim that villagers would pick up the containers and use them for domestic purposes. After protest, UCIL says that such radio-medical wastes are no longer dumped here. But the J.O.A.R activists claim that after their protests, the management has been crushing this waste in the Mill and sending it down the pipe into the tailing ponds. The Deputy Commissioner of Singhbhum East, and the Management of UCIL constantly assure journalist coming to Jadugora “that the radiation levels in the posh marketing area Bistupur of the city of Jamshedpur, is higher than the radiation levels in Jadugora”. This may be true considering that the city of Jamshedpur is only 25 km from Jadugora. Have the authorities warned the citizens of Jamshedpur of the risks? I have observed that, each day from Jamshedpur a good number of cancer patients leave by the Bokaro–Alleppey Express, to hospitals in South India, especially CMCH Vellore. The town of Jadugora and these tailing dams is just 2 km from the Howrah-Mumbai main railway line. ‘The world’s worst nuclear accident – in terms of radiation releases prior to Chernobyl, was the ‘spill’ of radioactive tailings into the Rio Puerco (1979), when a uranium waste dam broke contaminating an important river.’6 This contaminated surface water as far as 75 miles away (50 million gallons), and ground water to a

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depth of 30 ft, 15 miles from the dam, many of the Indigenous Navajos lost their farms and livestock and had to be resettled. In 1981 the Dumridih dam (Jadugora) burst, the effects of the spill will never be known, Nichia village lies at the bottom of the dam, till last year the UCIL management was still trying to ‘repair the damage’ with bolder reinforcement. UCIL has been constructing these dams, on the rice fields of the Adivasis. While their fields are being requisitioned, their residential plots are not, thus compelling the villagers to live beside the dam7. A National Report ‘Toxic Waste and Race in USA’, shows that such waste are conveniently dumped in areas populated largely by the non-white communities8. Can not these acts of our department of Atomic Energy, BARC and UCIL be considered as racist? Is this the way we treat the Indigenous communities –our first people? By 1985 six billion tones of radioactive tailings had accumulated on the surface of this planet, mainly on the lands of the dispossessed native inhabitants. Calculations of this risk must be based upon the 2,50,000 years during which uranium decay products remain radioactive, as opposed to, the few decades of working life of the mine9. Then can the future be safe when such dangerous material is left with just ‘ 4 meters of clay’ cover? Process chemicals: Radioactive materials are not the only hazardous component of a uranium wastes. Also of concern are heavy metals, which are a potential problem with any type of mining (i.e. Bauxite, Copper). These are the process chemicals. ‘Tailings also contain concentration of lead, zinc, manganese, cadmium and arsenic. Elements such as these do not decrease in toxicity with time, since there is no decay process, they simply last forever10. Most of the liquid waste from these mines, mills and tailing dams eventually land up in the small streams and rivulets feeding the Subarnarekha river. The World Bank’s plan ‘The Subarnarekha Multi Purpose Project’, of a garland chain of dams and canals along the river, through the States of Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa, is going to be a convenient delivery system to take radioactive waste, through three major States and then finally into the Bay of Bengal. Low dose radiation. The management of UCIL keeps continually harping on their claim that ‘there is no radiation in Jadugora’ but, when pushed a little, they alter this claim ‘It is within the permissible limits’. Radioactivity is especially dangerous since it can be created, but not eliminated. It attacks on the living cells – the building blocks of all forms of life. Today a growing number of scientist believe that there are no such things as ‘safe radiation levels’. They stress that all radiation is harmful, there is no threshold for health effects of low levels of radiation and that only the degree of damage is variable. Uranium mining produces low level radiation, the effects of which don’t often manifest themselves until many years after exposure. ‘ In field situations there is laboratory evidence that for certain types of radiation (alpha and neutrons) extrapolations from the effects of high doses at high dose rates, may underestimate the

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effects of low dose and low dose rates. For example it has been shown that a certain dose of alpha emitters can cause a higher incidence of cancer if given in smaller doses over a protracted period.11 The article quotes the pioneering work done by Dr. Alice Stewart ‘The child of a mother x-rayed during the pregnancy is more likely to die of leukemia by a factor of 1.5-2.0’. Dr. Stewart’s study was previously much disputed by the pro-establishment scientist when it appeared in 1950. However two recent studies have confirmed Dr Stewart’s findings, Prof. Mole an eminent radiologist predicts that a child irradiated as a foetus has a 1 to 2000 chance of developing leukemia. This compares with a natural rate of 1 in 4000. ‘We are now seeing a complete turn about in the way of thinking of those authorities such as the International Commission of Radiological Protection ICRP, regarding the effects of low-dose radiation.12 To the argument of the nuclear establishment, that the levels of radon in the more exposed homes are considerable higher than would be found in the neighbourhood of nuclear plants, Peter Bunyard in the same article further argues, ‘True but a natural bad does not exonerate its manmade equivalent secondly and no less important. radon gas may have a natural origin, but its coming into contact with human beings is largely anthropogenic’ And just how are standards set? ‘The first radon exposure standard was set for radium dial painters. However when uranium mining got underway in the ‘50’s, it became apparent that commercial mines could not operate if such a level were enforced so the standard was set ten times higher13. And how are standards maintained? In her educative forward to Miles Goldstick’s ‘Voices from Wollaston Lake’ This is what Dr. Rosalie Bertel has to say: ‘After the Chernobyl accident, April 26, 1986, some Governments (European) mixed contaminated milk with uncontaminated milk “adulterating” the latter and providing a more uniformly bad product. These practices were “justified” with elaborate risk analyses, matching trade-off between the dollar value of ‘illness’.’ 14 The argument that ‘low dose’ is not harmful is a great book to the Uranium industry, they have to take less care about the tailings and the waste which means more profit. In Jadugora, the tailings and waste ore are being used for construction work, and land fills, some dumped on children’s playgrounds (Dumridih). This is what Bertel has to say regarding low dose contamination in the same forward, ‘it may not bring sudden dramatic illnesses, rather, it slowly undermines health, like old age does, and causes the children in a community to be a little less healthy than their parents. Slowly over time, the vigor of the people is irreversibly reduced’. Impact on biosphere. There has been no published impact assessment study of the effects of radioactivity on the biosphere in Jadugora, here again we have to rely on studies done abroad at other uranium mining sites. However a remarkable, young journalist Rana S. Gautam, working as the bureau chief of Times of India group at Jamshedpur, on his personal initiative, got Dr. N.K. Upadhya15 to do an independent study16.

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This study shows ( Feb. – June 97) : Water Quality – On the detail physio-chemical analysis of water except the analysis of radio active substances (no facility available) it was found that following parameters were higher than the natural body of water in that area. Error! No table of figures entries found. Place

pH

Tailing pond 1 Tailing pond 2 Khara river Well near Rakha

9.6 9.5 8.3 7.3

Total hardnes s mg/l 502.0 480.0 234.0 145.0

Calcium hardness mg/l 354.0 324.0 146.0 117.0

Magnesium hardness mg/l 35.1 28.9 21.47 25.8

Chlorides/& sulfate mg/l 200/450 250/500 35/78 21.8/62.0

2. Bio-diversity:- The bio-diversity was studied with the help of benthic macro-invertebrates in the ponds and the river. The biotic index constructed on the available data of benthic macro-invertebrates indicated the very high level of pollution. The organism were showing none-to-single-to few organisms in all the samples collected. The result is as follows:Places

No of species

No of Simpson’ organisms s index

Tailing pond 1 Tailing pond 2 Khara river

2 Nil 6

27 Nil 23

0.19 0.0 0.26

Shanno n’s index .08 0.0 0.152

(In Simpson index the range is 1 to 0.1, the lower index value is indicator of good ecological condition, on the other hand in Shannon index it is just opposite) 3. Bio-magnification – through the food chain of radioactive substances. It is difficult to study the bio-magnification through the food chain of radioactive materials due to inadequate facilities, however attempts have been made to get information on this aspect. We collected various samples of plants and animals and the radiation level was estimated in them to assess weather there is bio-magnification or not. The analysis were done in radioisotope laboratory. The result recorded as follows. Which indicates positive bio-magnification. the organisms forming food chain in this macro ecological system. Radiation level in plant samples: Aquatic grasses from TP -1 Fruits of aquatic grasses from TP – 1 Fruit from Kendu plant near TP

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1 rad 3 rad 3 rad

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Radiation from animal samples. Chironomous larvae from TP –1 DO from River Gastropod shell from TP – 1 DO from River

9 rad 7rad 15 rad 15rad

Radiation is measured in units of rad. A person exposed to 1000 rad will die within a week. Natural radiation is regarded to be 0.1 rad and is considered as safe dose. An exposure to 50 rads in one year is approximately similar to that of 5 rad exposure for 10 years. An exposure to 50 rad is considered to cause cancer or sterility or deformation in growing age. The poor bio-diversity may be due to elimination of other organisms in course of time due to radiation. Effects on Human Health and Biological system. (summary) A survey on human health was done in the three villages surrounding the tailing ponds of the region which are exposed to radiation since 1962. The villages are – Chatichocha, Dungridih, and Nichia – Bhatin. The survey on health conditions indicates that the human population is very badly effected. The population shows over all weaknesses and lethargy17, to avoid that the tribal have more consumption of liquor since they have no idea or knowledge about the cause of their problems they have left it on the fate. They use radiation zone as their natural habitat unaware of the changes in course of mining and processing in the area of the Uranium and allied radioactive material. The UCIL and State authorities have closed their eyes to the slow but serious environmental disaster in the area. The first preventive action is to remove and rehabilitate the people of the area to some safe zone. This should be followed by curative measures and health care to the people who are effected.

While the above are the main findings of this study, Rana S. Gautam in his well documented three part article in the TOI (Oct. 97) quotes a 85 year old tribal, “The white-yellow seeds in some Kendu fruit have vanished, this was not so when I was young”. The article further quotes a callous comment by a scientist of the on site ‘Health and Physics unit of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre BARC “Even in cases of papaya you would find some fruits without seeds”. Regarding this issue of genetic changes, in the same article Dr. Upadhaya say’s “without cyto-chemical test, it would be difficult to pin point the reason” Rana S Gautam further quotes a Bihar State Pollution Control Board (BSPCB) official “ In fact the BSPCB chief here, Mr. Manikant Prasad gives a clean chit to UCIL, ‘Nothing wrong with the environment’ he insists, Sources in their office point out that the Board goes by the figures provided by the UCIL. ‘We don’t have the equipment or trained staff to check radiation’ concedes Mr. Prasad”. Health hazards: CSE/Delhi/Health & Environment/Xavier Dias/July 1998.

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In 1546 in the Central Europe mountain region, miners of uranium ore, were reported to have an unusually high frequency of fatal lung disease, then they called it ‘mountain illness’. ‘Cases of lung cancer in uranium miners were first clinically and anatomically diagnosed in Germany in 187918. Despite ample further reports of deaths of uranium miners in the following years, little notice was taken by the scientific community to established relation between ultimate lung cancer and radiation exposure in uranium mining in particular. ‘Each radioactive element presents a different risk to health, even thought these elements are primarily alpha radiation emitters, when ingested or inhaled are 1020 times more biologically damaging than gamma and beta the two other common types of radiation’19. ‘ Uranium due to its insolubility, delivers most of its doses to the gastrointestinal tract, with a small fraction to the kidneys and bone, Thorium-230 attacks immune system and 70% in the liver, 20% in the spleen and 10% in bone marrow. Radium-226 is primarily a bone seeker and extremely carcinogenic. Radon lodges deeply into the lung and the lining of the bronchi. Besides the radioactive risks to health there are the risks from the processing and non-radioactive toxic compounds associated with uranium deposits. Rarely is the risk of these diseases taken into account in cost/benefit analyses for stricter control of uranium tailings and ground water protection20. Therefore the health risks for the Miners varies from the Mill workers, as the Miners are more exposed to radon and the mill workers to uranium, Thorium and radium. In the USA, Canada and Australia, the Miners Unions are demanding a reduction of the Work Level Months WLM., this is the method of calculating the time of exposure of the miner or the mill worker. 4 WLM per year would be compared to 1200 chest x-rays to the lung per year, as 1 WLM per year = 30,000 mrem per year; one chest x-ray = 25 mrem21. At 4 WLM per year if a miner works for 30 years he would receive a 120 WLM life time doses. But two scientific studies show increased lung cancer in miners with lifetime exposure in the 30-50 WLM (lifetime) range. To determine if a reduction in radon standards was appropriate, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health NIOSH USA conducted a review of the world’s literature on the hazards of radon, the report says: “…..there is strong evidence of substantial risk at below 120 Cumulative WLM of exposure to radon.22”. This report besides its many important recommendations (which are to date not heeded) concluded ‘ a lifetime dose of only 44 WLM is estimated to double the risk of fatal lung cancer among miners’. In India we have as yet to assess the damage on the environment and the people living around Jadugora. UCIL does not provide any medical care to nonemployees, even though the presence of their mining activities has direct effect on the health of the people living there. We have with us ample evidence to show cause and effect. But modern ‘science’ that is so sub-servant to mega-technology, will only ridicule our ‘findings’ even though, for us and a majority of our people they are the life and death stories of relatives, friends.

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Conclusion: There is no ‘safe way’ of mining uranium or storing these gigantic quantities of radioactive waste for infinity. We can only reduce the risk of exposure and there by hope to reduce some deaths, to make our statistics look reasonable. Even if the extraction of uranium (like asbestos) are banned today, with the volume of radioactive tailings already existing on this earth, it would be extremely difficult to keep them from effecting our biosphere and the generations to come. I would like to close with an important quote from John Bellamy Foster’s great book ‘The Vulnerable Planet’23: “One of the basic contradictions of the capitalist economy, according to radical philosopher Istavn Meszaros, ‘is that it cannot separate advance from destruction, nor progress from waste -- however catastrophic the results”. I am sure all of us here can surely make this distinction.

B.I.R.S.A. (Mining Concerns Desk) Village Duccasai – P.O. Noamundi – Jharkhand 833 217. INDIA.

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1 2

3

World Uranium Hearing Grey Book 1992. Goldstick Miles. Voices from Wallaston Lake Pg101. Uranium a discussion guide. National Film Board of Canada 1991.

3 4

Uranium Ore Processing. Proceedings of an Advisory Group meeting Washington DC Nov 24-25 1975 IAEA P 188. 1976. 5 Dreeson D. R. ‘Uranium Mill Tailings – Environmental Implications’ 6 Moody Roger. Paper on Uranium Mining at radical anti-nuclear congress 1989. 7 Read ‘India’s Nuclear Weapons Test…..at whose cost’, Stan Lourdusawmy J.O.H.A.R . Chaibasa. 8 Toxic Wastes and Race in the US. Commission for Racial Justice, United Church of Christ. 9 SCRAM Report (?) post 1985. Paper on Uranium Mining. MINEWATCH Dispatch 10 Robinson, D.J.; Ruggles, F.G. Zaidi A. “A study of Water Pollution in the Vicinity of Rabbit lake” 11 Ward John. Doctors for Nuclear Awareness in ‘New Doctor ‘ July 1980 12 Bunyard Peter. The Ecologist Vol. 20 No 5 Sept/Oct 1990 . 13 No Immediate Danger. Bertell Rossalie. Women’s Press, London 1985. 14 Please check how much of this was sold or gifted to India & other third worlds, that have ‘operation white flood’. 15 Dr. N.K. Upadhaya a professor of zoology with the Ranchi University .has worked as a consultant with MECON has also studied ecological impact of Indian Rare Earth Ltd., plant processing radioactive thorium in Gopalpur Orissa in 1993. 16

Copy of the report is available from the above address. See what Rosalie Bertel has to say about effects from food contamination pg. 5. 18 The Ecologist Vol16. No 4/5 1996. 19 K.Z. Morgan, ‘Cancer and low level Ionizing Radiation’ Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 9/78. 20 Taylor Lynda. Known & suspected Health hazards relating to the mining and milling of Uranium. 21 K.Z. Morgan as quoted by Taylor Lynda in above paper. 22 D.Scot, et al, NIOSH study group report ‘The risk of lung cancer among underground Miners of Uranium bearing Ore’s’ 7/10/80. 23 Monthly Review Press. Indian print by Cornerstone Publications P.O. Hijli Co-operative, Kharagpur 721 306 WB. 17