Malaysiakini :: Letters
Malaysiakini :: Letters |
| Lynas: Making Kuantan residents the lab rats Posted: 20 Jun 2011 04:17 AM PDT On June 7, 2011, in a live interview with CNN, Arnie Gundersen, a licensed nuclear power engineer with 39 years experience in managing and coordinating projects at 70 nuclear power plants in the US, noted that with the prevailing wind patterns after the Fukushima disaster's radioactive discharges, air filter monitors in Seattle detected about half the level of 'hot' (radioactive) suspended fine particulates as were detected in the air over Tokyo, 7,700 km away. Gundersen didn't clarify what the baseline level of airborne radioactive particulates in Seattle was, pre-Fukushima, but if the measured levels in April 2011 were indeed largely blown over from Fukushima, it's very sobering considering that Kuantan and Kemaman are within a 28 km radius of the Lynas rare earths refinery being built at Gebeng, which will be handling rare earth concentrates ground and milled into a fine powder for acid extraction at the plant. The are experiences from Bukit Merah in the 1980s that tells us that beyond the dust-generating cracking, grinding and milling operations, powdery thorium cake waste was also spilling onto roads during transportation, during packing and unpacking, loading and unloading, and children were frequently playing in the vicinity of exposed mounds of the waste. Indeed, the thorium waste was reportedly offered to local farmers as fertiliser. It is for these reasons that the issue of radioactive dusts and internal emitters - from inhalation and ingestion, or absorption through the skin - becomes crucial. It matters a lot whether the source of radiation is a solid lump of radioactive material (intensity of external irradiation rapidly falls off to the degree of the square of distance), or whether it exists as a pile of fine radioactive particulates that are respirable when airborne and mobile. The Lynas Radiological Impact Assessment submitted by Nuklear Malaysia (dated June 2010) does attempt to estimate the risks from inhaled emitters for LAMP employees (average volume of air intake, presumed level of dust concentrates and associated radioactivity internalised by the employee) (p.56) but it then proceeds to compare the (internalised) absorbed radiation energy - averaged over the whole body - with existing threshold levels of 'safe' exposure. This is precisely what was contentious in CERRIE's deliberations (www.cerrie.org), and within radiobiology and radiation carcinogenesis circles - by way of analogy, averaging the absorbed radiation energy over the whole body is equivalent to saying that a burning cigarette butt on your palm doesn't hurt because the heat is negligible when averaged over your whole body. But cancer biologists and educated lay people know that cancer can emerge from a single cell that has sustained the requisite mutations which allow it to multiply uncontrollably, i.e. it is a highly discontinuous phenomenon and averaging radioactive exposures over the whole body is not meaningful for a discrete event in radiation carcinogenesis which involves intense, localised radiation doses delivered to cells surrounding the radioactive particle. Aside from cancer biology, radiation risk can also be approached from an epidemiological perspective. One of the very few empirical attempts at this was a 1993-1994 study of male miners at a combined iron ore-rare earth minerals mine in China which was reported in the Journal of Radiological Protection in 2005. In that study, highly dust-exposed miners had 5.15 times the age-adjusted lung cancer rate as compared to the rate among Chinese males in the general population. The less-exposed mining staff had 2.30 times the general population rate. Both groups had similar smoking rates (78 percent, vs. 67 percent for the general adult male population). On this basis, the authors concluded that the excess lung cancer risk among the less-exposed was largely due to above-average smoking, and the further difference between the two miner groups was due to high exposure to airborne crystalline silica particulates (mainly) and to thorium-containing dusts and its radioactive daughter nuclides such as radon gas. These conclusions are highly debatable, and it is precisely in this situation of uncertainty and lack of consensus that the Kuantan-Kemaman community shouldn't end up as tikus makmal (lab rats) in a natural experiment for Lynas. Finally, it should also be noted that the ores that the Chinese miners were exposed to contained 400 ppm of thorium. The rare earth oxide concentrates that will be arriving shortly at Kuantan port will have 1,600 ppm of thorium. The US Public Health Service (1990) reports that the natural background level in soil is typically approximately 6 ppm of thorium. Chan Chee Khoon, ScD (Epidemiology) writes from the Centre for Population Health, department of social & preventive medicine, University of Malaya Faculty of Medicine. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Peaceful assembly: Any 'chaos' police's fault Posted: 20 Jun 2011 03:27 AM PDT The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) Malaysia expresses its support for Bersih 2.0's call for a peaceful assembly on 9 July to highlight the need for free and fair elections. CIJ is also concerned that various parties, including the police and Umno-controlled Utusan Malaysia, have condemned this peaceful assembly and asked for it to be called off. CIJ is particularly concerned that Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has raised the possibility of detentions without trial under the Internal Security Act arising out of this assembly. CIJ would like to remind the authorities that the right to peacefully assemble is a guaranteed under Article 10 of the federal constitution. Furthermore, the need to apply for a police permit for peaceful assemblies goes beyond the permitted restrictions under Article 10. CIJ draws attention to the Malaysian Human Rights Commission's repeated recommendations that the requirement for police permits for peaceful assemblies be repealed and that the police actively cooperate with demonstrators. CIJ also would like to state that "causing traffic jams" is not a legitimate reason to prevent peaceful assemblies. Such assemblies are a constitutional right and the authorities should be taking steps to actively protect this right and educate the public about the importance of this fundamental right. If the government and the authorities are truly serious about preventing "chaos" and maintaining public order, it should cooperate with Bersih 2.0, instead of taking steps to hinder the gathering. Properly cordoned-off roads, traffic marshals and police escorts along the demonstration route will help to ensure a smooth demonstration and maintain order. Setting up unnecessary road blocks across Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur, calling in hundreds of anti-riot police and busing in reinforcement from outside Klang Valley, firing tear gas and water cannons and making hundreds of arrests, as has been done in the past, only contributes to the chaos that the authorities are purportedly keen on avoiding. Bersih 2.0 has pledged to hold a peaceful, responsible gathering and has openly stated their wish to cooperate with the police. This offer should be actively taken up by the police to ensure the gathering remains peaceful and orderly. CIJ supports Bersih 2.0's call for free and fair elections, especially the call for free and fair access to media during elections. It is apparent in CIJ's ongoing media monitoring exercise that most of the mainstream print media are heavily biased towards the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional. Pakatan Rakyat leaders are often criticised without being given the right of reply. This violates journalism ethics and must be corrected before the next general election. All political parties should be given equal access to the media and be allowed to advertise in all media without discrimination and censorship, as demanded by Bersih 2.0. CIJ also supports Bersih 2.0's demands that proportionate airtime be allocated on RTM and Bernama for all contesting parties, since these are publicly funded media agencies.
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