Indian uranium mine is blamed for a spate of horrifying illnesses

["Michael C. Baker" <mcbaker@lanl.gov>]

I thought some of you might be interested in this article.

Mike ... mcbaker@lanl.gov



>NUCLEAR FALLOUT
>An Indian uranium mine is blamed for a spate of horrifying illnesses
>afflicting local villagers
>
>By Soutik Biswas / Calcutta, June 20, 1999 Asia Week
>
> SURUMAJHIAN IS A URANIUM miner in Jaduguda, in the northern Indian state
>of Bihar. He says he has been suffering from body aches and fever for the
>past six years. Another miner, Mohan Soren, has an eight-year-old daughter
>whose legs became paralyzed three months after she was born. Laxmi Saman
>Muran's one-year-old son is suffering from tuberculosis of the brain. And
>18-year-old Simoti Majhi struggles through life with a hunched back and a
>useless right hand. 
>
>What is going on at Jaduguda? On the face of it, the 30,000-strong
>community looks like any cluster of Indian villages, with its fields, ponds
>and young women gliding here and there with pitchers of water balanced on
>their heads. But this is no pastoral idyll. In environmental circles,
>Jaduguda is known as India's Chernobyl, after the Soviet nuclear reactor
>that malfunctioned in 1986 and spewed radioactive contamination across
>great swathes of Europe. According to activists and local politicians,
>waste liquid flowing from the sprawling Jaduguda uranium complex is
>radioactive, endangering the health and lives of the local population.
>"There is poison in Jaduguda's air and water," says Shamu Majhi, a miner.
>
>A recent report by Bihar's Legislative Council, composed of the state's
>elected politicians, says people living within 15 km of the mine have been
>stricken with cancer and leukemia, with many suffering impotency and
>deformation of limbs. Some 100 residents of a miners' housing project have
>died of cancer in the past decade, and almost 90% of those now there have
>acute arthritis. The council's environment committee has evacuated 46
>families, affected by leukemia and other problems, from the mining areas.
>
>Another report, by the militant Jharkhand Organization Against Radiation
>(JOAR), says 47% of village women have complained of disrupted menstrual
>cycles, and 18% say they have suffered either miscarriages or given birth
>to stillborn babies in the past five years. Other reported problems include
>skin ailments, kidney damage, hypertension, central-nervous-system
>disorders, insomnia and nausea.
>
>Environmentalists and politicians blame shoddy management at the
>government-owned Uranium Corporation of India Ltd. (UCIL), whose Jaduguda
>mine supplies uranium for the country's 10 nuclear power stations. The
>company is a key player in India's independent - and highly secretive -
>nuclear-power program. Ore from the mine is processed at Jaduguda into a
>substance called U308 - commonly known as yellow cake - and then sent to
>the Nuclear Fuel Complex in the southern city of Hyderabad, where uranium
>fuel rods are produced. 
>
>The principal danger for people living near Jaduguda, say
>environmentalists, is a 40-hectare "tailing" pond used to hold liquid and
>solid waste produced in the processing of the ore into yellow cake. JOAR
>president Ghanasyam Biruli says the incidence of health problems in the
>area is too high to be explained by natural factors. In his view, the waste
>material released into the pond is radioactive. 
>
>India's Atomic Energy Act states that there should be no habitation within
>five kilometers of dumping grounds or tailing ponds. Even though Jaduguda
>has been in operation for more than 30 years, as many as seven villages
>still stand within one and a half kilometers of the danger zone. One of
>them, Dungardihi, is just 40 meters away. Another complaint: Liquid waste
>piped from the plant periodically floods a local road, forcing villagers
>and cattle to wade through it. 
>
>Regulations specify that the tailing pond has to be permanently covered
>with water. This rule is not always respected, but when it is, children and
>women often bathe in the water and even carry it back to their homes for
>use. Locals complain that there is no perimeter fence. When the pond dries
>up, dust blows through villages and on to fields. Local politician Suresh
>Handsa says rice production has fallen because padi are contaminated .
>
>The mine operators also dump dry tailings at the site. Occasionally they
>contain what villagers say is yellow cake - though why so precious and
>potent a substance should be thrown out has not been explained. Whatever
>the truth of that, a doctor attached to nearby Jamshedpur's Tata Main
>Hospital has no doubt about the consequences of the mine's operations. "The
>whole area has become unfit for habitation," he says. The doctor asked not
>to be named.
>
>Miners complain that safety standards are ignored in the pits and in the
>processing unit. Workers are sometimes not supplied with respirators for
>handling and cleaning the yellow cake. JOAR alleges that in these
>circumstances, employees could be inhaling uranium dust and radon gas.
>International guidelines say staff at uranium plants should be issued with
>protective clothing. But miners and loaders at Jaduguda wear ordinary
>cotton uniforms provided by the company. They take these uniforms home for
>washing.
>
>UCIL denies all the charges leveled against it. Its chairman and managing
>director, J.L. Bhasin, says: "There is no health hazard in and around
>Jaduguda caused by our uranium mines." Radiation levels are "well within
>the stipulations" laid down by the International Commission on Radiological
>Protection, he says. And the guidelines of the International Atomic Energy
>Agency are "strictly followed." However, under the terms of India's Atomic
>Energy Act, the company does not have to reveal its test results or
>employees' health records.
>
>Bhasin cites a medical survey of more than 3,000 residents, organized by
>the Bombay-based Bhabha Atomic Research Center, in December last year. It
>found that villagers suffering from poor health and deformities showed
>"congenital anomalies and diseases due to genetic abnormalities, chronic
>malarial infection, malnutrition and alcohol consumption." Bhasin insists:
>"The cases examined had no relation to radiation."
>
>The mine boss also denies allegations that the public has access to the
>tailing pond. "It is well engineered," he says. "No person can take a bath
>or wash their clothes in the pond water." Some reports have, in fact,
>suggested that locals cut their way through the perimeter fence. Even so,
>say environmentalists, the company should take its responsibilities more
>seriously and ensure that security guards are in place to prevent trespassing.
>
>Local politicians do not accept the company's explanations. They want
>tighter monitoring of the uranium mine and its operations. If they don't
>get it, they say they will campaign to have the place closed down. That may
>be beyond their power. When India exploded five nuclear devices last year,
>Jaduguda's uranium ore became that much more precious. But somewhere
>between nuclear ambition and the wellbeing of the villagers living in the
>shadow of the mine, there has to be a healthy compromise.
>
>--

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