This book is about the residents of  Port Hope screaming out for protection from the Canadian Government. Our elected officials and the nuclear regulatory bodies have sacrificed the health of Port Hope residents to protect the nuclear industry since the start of the atomic age in the 1940s.

Port Hope has had a longer exposure to radioactive contamination and its lethal effects than any community on Earth. Uranium ore and its waste products have been hauled along our streets and processed in our harbour since 1932, or 13 years before the first nuclear bomb was dropped on Japan.

We have 3.5 million cubic metres (4.6 million cubic yards) of radioactive waste spread under our homes, schools, parks and in our harbour. Port Hope is saturated with radioactive, heavy metal and chemical contamination. We also face daily emissions of uranium, ammonia, nitrous oxide, arsenic and fluorides from 2 nuclear processing facilities in the middle of our town of 12,500 people. Neither facility has a buffer zone around them to protect us.

The Canadian Government refuses to conduct comprehensive health studies they first promised Port Hope in 1979 despite troubling results released in Health Canada’s 2000 and 2002 indicator studies:

In the absence of government health studies, the Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee has been raising money through silent auctions and book sales to pay for biological testing of Port Hope residents. This is outrageous in a country as rich as Canada.

I became involved in nuclear issues in 2004 after I saw the results of the 1978 radon testing conducted by the Canadian Government on the elementary school my daughters attended. Radon levels under the kindergarten and gymnasium were 125 times higher than the allowable level. The test results were never made public. The Atomic Energy Control Board gave Dr. Powers School a clean bill of health and never spoke of it again.

I was not a nuclear activist in 2004. I was a carpenter who volunteered to improve the playground at my daughters’ school. I knew nothing about radioactive waste nor did I have any intention of looking into it. In the intervening three-and-a-half years, I have spent 7000-8000 hours studying and researching every aspect of the nuclear industry and radioactive waste. I have made over 100 presentations totaling 200,000 words to MPs, MPPs (MLAs), Municipal Councils, Federal and Provincial agencies, scientists, professors, university classes and our local School Board on the dangers we face in Port Hope.

This book is easy to read but difficult to stomach. It’s hard to accept that our Canadian Government has knowingly been harming and killing our children and our friends in Port Hope for over 60 years to keep its actions secret. This is the story of the nuclear violation of Port Hope by the Canadian Government.

The cost of the book is $20. Part of the proceeds will be donated to the Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee to help pay for biological testing of Port Hope residents.

To order the book:
Pat McNamara, RR#1, Site 10, P.O. Box 85 Grande Prairie Alberta, T8V 2Z8

Back