=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #202
—October 10, 1990—
News and resources for environmental justice.
——
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@igc.apc.org
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TRIAL AND ERROR: A COSTLY WAY TO LEARN.
[Continuing our review of Catherine Caufield’s stunning,
fact-filled book, MULTIPLE EXPOSURES, CHRONICLES OF THE RADIATION
AGE now available in paperback. Page numbers in our text refer to
pages in the 1989 hardback edition from Harper & Row.]
The history of the development of ionizing radiation (X-rays and
radioactivity) reveals many of the same problems we face today:
dangerous technologies are being developed via trial and error,
with humans serving as the test species. For example (pg. 8), in
1896, “The first systematic practitioner of X-ray therapy was Dr.
Leopold Freund in Vienna, whose first patient was a fiveyear-old
girl with a hairy mole on her back. In December, 1896, she
underwent two hours of X-rays every day for 16 days. After 12
days, the hair on her back began to fall out, but her whole back
became horribly inflamed and took a very long time to heal.
Thereafter Freund limited exposures to 10 minutes. ‘This
accident,’ commented the girl’s doctor, dryly, ‘was full of
instruction.’” Oops.
From its earliest days, and continuing into the present day,
trial-and-error has been the basic means of development for
nuclear technology. The underwater A-bomb test July 25, 1946 at
Bikini atoll gave unexpected results (pgs. 94-98); it was
supposed to show that a fleet of Navy ships could survive a
nearby bombing and could then be boarded and sailed triumphantly
home across the Pacific. Instead, “The test planners were taken
aback. They had not expected such high levels of radioactivity,
though there had been warnings from RadSafe [the official medical
team in charge of troop safety]…. The task force now faced a
huge and unexpected job-decontaminating the target fleet [of 84
ships] so it could be reboarded and sailed home. Unfortunately,
no one knew how to clear a ship of radioactivity. In the first
days, crews simply sluiced down the decks of their ships, using
radioactive lagoon water. When that didn’t work, they used soap
and water. That too failed, as did every other cleaning agent
tried, from lye to foamite…. After many weeks, it was finally
proved that the only effective decontamination technique was to
remove the outer surface of each ship to a depth of almost half
an inch…. Sailors were not issued proper protective clothing–a
garment to cover the entire body and head, along with goggles,
boots, gloves, and filter masks–while working on contaminated
vessels. The first clear order to destroy severely contaminated
clothing was not issued until two weeks after [the bomb] was
exploded. Not until 13 August, almost three weeks after the
blast, were decontamination crews ordered to board the ‘change
ship’ to shower and change their workclothes before returning to
the ships where they slept and ate.
“The target ships were not the only ones made radioactive by [the
bomb]. The live fleet, the [100] ships on which most of the
42,000 participants were sleeping, showering, and eating, had
also become contaminated, largely as a result of entering the
lagoon prematurely…. Warren [in charge of RadSafe] recommended
that all drinking water should be taken from the ocean, as far as
possible away from the lagoon, but his advice was ignored. The
radioactive lagoon water contaminated the evaporators used to
collect it and the pipes that carried it to the showers and
toilets…. Warren’s private papers, which became available after
his death in 1982, reveal the severity of the situation. On 13
August he reported that ‘The initial contamination of surfaces
was so great that reduction… of 90 percent or more still leaves
large and dangerous quantities of fission [products] and alpha
emitters scattered about… Contamination of personnel, clothing,
hands, and even food can be demonstrated readily in every ship…
in increasing amounts day by day.’
“By the time the true extent of the live fleet’s contamination
was acknowledged, the fleet had already dispersed…. In
September, 1946 the Navy decided that every ship that had been at
Bikini during or after the [Abomb] test had to undergo full-scale
decontamination… But the Navy could not afford to have an
entire fleet out of action for months while a way to clean it was
sought. ‘Consequently,’ an official report stated in September,
1946, ‘several APA’s, Destroyer Division 72 and some auxiliaries
have been cleared practically to meet operational requirements on
the basis that they might continue to operate until methods of
making them safe for overhaul are developed.’” Oops.
In 1953 the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC, a federal agency) set
up offices in the western states of Colorado, New Mexico and Utah
to promote the discovery and mining of uranium. (pg. 75) By this
time the “radiation protection community” [the doctors and others
who had appointed themselves to establish standards for ‘safe’
levels of radiation exposure] had officially adopted the position
that there is no truly safe amount of radiation–a viewpoint
officially adopted by the ICRP [International Commission on
Radiological Protection] in 1948 (pgs. 73, 77). Their position
was crystal clear: Every bit of radiation carries with it the
risk of cancer and of genetic damage that can be passed on to
one’s children.
But a 1951 pamphlet published by the AEC makes no mention of
radiation in connection with uranium mining; instead it says,
“the radioactivity contained in rocks is not dangerous to humans
unless the rocks are held in close contact with the skin for very
long periods of time.” (pg. 81)
Navajo uranium miner Phillip Harrison says, “And when I went to
work [in 1969], I was never told anything inside the mine would
be hazardous to my health later. It really surprised us to find
out after so many years that it would turn out like this, that it
would kill a lot of people. They said nothing about radiation or
safety, things like that. We had no idea at all.” He describes
his father’s death from lung cancer: “My father, the last year of
his life he had greatly suffered; he had really suffered daily.
We gave him pain pills, but the pain just started mounting and
pretty soon the pain pills weren’t enough. They started shooting
him with needles, and the needles didn’t stop the pain. I think
they die mostly from pain.” (pg. 79)
Some 30,000 to 40,000 men mined uranium from the 1950s through
the 1970s (pgs. 84, 86). The current estimate is that somewhere
between 3000 and 8000 of these men will die from lung cancer as a
result of their exposure to radiation, and thousands more will
die of emphysema, fibrosis and other lung ailments. Oops. The
“developed” nations tested about 500 atomic bombs in the
atmosphere, starting in 1946. Each bomb created massive amounts
of fallout containing strontium90 a highly radioactive element
not found in nature. The human body reacts to strontium-90 as if
it were calcium and stores it in the bones, where calcium is
normally stored, and in many other body tissues. As late as 1953
the AEC’s official position on dangers from strontium-90 was that
“the only potential hazard to humans would be the ingestion of
bone splinters [from ground beef made from cows fed
fallout-contaminated grass]….” (pg. 126) What the AEC’s
scientists overlooked was that milk from cows would provide a
direct pathway into millions of humans–especially children–even
if those humans never ate any bone splinters whatsoever. Oops.
When a University of Pittsburgh scientist calculated in 1969 that
atomic fallout had killed 400,000 American children, the AEC
asked its own scientists to evaluate the data (pg. 155). The
AEC’s scientists concluded that “only” 4,000 American children
had been killed by atomic fallout. Oops.
The AEC did not like this answer. AEC officials tried
(unsuccessfully) to prevent their own scientists from presenting
these conclusions at a meeting of the prestigious American
Association for the Advancement of Science. Two weeks after he
presented his data, AEC scientist Arthur Tamplin found his staff
cut from 11 to four; within six months, he had only one assistant
remaining and his major responsibilities had been transferred to
other scientists. He had no choice but to quit the agency and
seek work elsewhere (pg. 157).
The history of nuclear development, thoroughly and
dispassionately documented in this book, is a chronicle of errors
and misjudgments, of disregard for scientific evidence and common
sense, and, often, of contempt for common decency itself. Now
this industry and its friends in government plan to experiment on
you, to learn what will happen when “low level” radioactive waste
has the name “radioactive” stripped off and it is renamed “below
regulatory concern” (BRC) [see RHWN #183, #184, and #185]. BRC wastes can now
legally be sent to your municipal dump, your municipal
incinerator, and even to your local recycling program, from
whence recycled radioactive metal objects can make their way back
into your home. Oops.
Furthermore, this industry and its friends in government are
pressing forward now with a new plan for burying more than 2000
pounds of plutonium-239 half a mile below the desert floor in
southern New Mexico. By the government’s own estimate, 100
micrograms of plutonium will kill a human, so the WIPP [Waste
Isolation Pilot Plant] site will contain enough plutonium to kill
10 billion humans–twice earth’s population. Plutonium remains
radioactive for 240,000 years. Our government assures us they can
seal the WIPP so it will remain secure for 250,000 years. And if
they are wrong? Oops.
Get: Catherine Caufield, MULTIPLE EXPOSURES, CHRONICLES OF THE
RADIATION AGE (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990).
Paperback: $13.95.
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.
Descriptor terms: catherine caufield; radiation; nuclear
weapons; occupational safety; aec; workers; race; native peoples;
native americans; children; strontium-90; plutonium-239; wipp;
waste isolation pilot plant; health;