Re: 700 cancer cases caused by X-rays...Montclair NJ info...

[John Andrews <andrewsjp@chartertn.net>]

William V Lipton wrote:



>Another excellent book is:  "Factors of Risk:  The Politics of Radon," by Leonard A. Cole, published by the AAAS.

>

>The book discusses one interesting case.  EPA promoted an extensive (and expensive) radon mitigation program in Montclair, NJ.  This involved large scale soil

>removal and replacement with soil of  low U content.  A problem came when the contractors wanted to dispose of the removed soil in local landfills.  The

>residents refused to permit this saying that if it's so hazardous, "Not in my back yard."  I can't recall the outcome, but soil disposal became a major headache.

>

>The opinions expressed are strictly mine.

>It's not about dose, it's about trust.

>Curies forever.

>

>Bill Lipton

>liptonw@dteenergy.com

>

>  

>

In the Montclair, NJ situation, the source of the contamination was 

uranium tailings from which US Radium had extracted some radium.  The 

residual materials were dumped in the local land fill, an abondoned 

brownstone quarry, along with all the other local trash which included 

the ash from the coal fires used for local heating at the time.  Based 

on my sampling of this site using extensive boreholes, I believe that 

most of the contamination was due not to uranium, but to the propagation 

of radon gas throughout the waste matrix through the porous ash.  EPA 

was not interested in this opinion nor was the contractor who was 

particularly interested in the prospective work of remediation of this 

danger.  My suggestion of providing a non-porous clay filled trench 

around the fill site was not interesting to anybody.  EPA would not 

consider using the latest solid state detectors by which the radium 

could be differentiated from radon because "it was not in our 

contract."  As a result, peoples lives were destroyed, homes were 

demolished and vast sums were used to move innocuous materials to Utah.  

I remain disgusted with this project.  I feel bad to this day for the 

people I have hurt whose tears I have seen.



John Andrews

Knoxville, Tennessee



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