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Expert discusses health effects of uranium mining
By RUSSELL CARTER/Star-Tribune Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 9:25 AM EST
Between 100 and 150 people attended a program Saturday at the Community Center at Chatham to learn more about the potential health effects of uranium mining in Pittsylvania County.
The free educational program was sponsored by the Dan River Basin Association and featured Douglas M. Brugge, an associate professor in the Department of Public Health and Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Mass.
Brugge spoke on the history and health effects of uranium mining.
"There are far too few studies on the effects of community exposure," he said, adding that residents also would benefit from listening to different experts from other fields.
"I think people should concern themselves about something like this and should educate themselves," he said. "But I can't tell you what conclusions you should draw."
Brugge talked about the effects uranium mines had on the Navajo people in the Southwest during the "uranium boom" of the 1950s.
Years after the mines closed, he said, there are still major problems.
Brugge noted that although regulations have improved, radioactive byproducts from uranium mining can last for a long time and are hard to completely get rid of or contain.
He showed pictures of children playing near uranium tailings - piles of leftover soil or sand that has been mined - and livestock grazing on contaminated soil.
Brugge also showed pictures of mines that have been left open in Arizona, saying that proper cleanup should concern officials.
"Will there be enough resources down the road, should there be a need for mine remediation, that it could be done properly?" Brugge asked.
Brugge also highlighted known health problems caused by uranium mining in the miners.
Among other things, Brugge said uranium can damage kidneys and cause birth defects and reproductive harm.
Radon, a gas produced as uranium decays, can cause lung cancer, and radium, another byproduct of uranium, has been known to cause bone cancer, cancer of the nasal sinuses and mastoid air cells, and leukemia.
Brugge noted that mining conditions have improved, but said regulations are often affected by economic conditions and not health concerns.
He also presented information found in two newer studies that uranium can cause damage to genetic material in DNA.
Although most of Brugge's information concerned miners and not the surrounding communities, he told stories of homes being built with the radioactive tailings and miners returning to their homes covered in radioacative dust during the 1950s when little was known about uranium and its effects.
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noU4Us wrote on Nov 13, 2008 5:44 PM: