PORT HOPE COMMUNITY
HEALTH CONCERNS COMMITTEE
UPDATED - Thursday June 12, 2008 

Approximately 3.5 million cubic metres of radioactive and heavy metal waste remains within the boundaries of the Municipality of Port Hope at numerous sites, awaiting proper long-term storage...To date, however, there has been no funding available to the community of Port Hope for comprehensive independent health studies despite the $260,000,000 to be spent by the Federal Government to manage this low level waste and develop long term storage options.

READ "LATEST NEWS" - THURSDAY JUNE 12, 2008

Media Release Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR) and PHCHCC For Immediate Release June 11, 2008 Organizations say “Reject Cameco’s Plans for Enriched Uranium in Port Hope”    This is the clear message that will be delivered by the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility (CCNR) and the Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee (PHCHCC) to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission Hearing in Ottawa on Thursday, June 12, 2008.    Dr. Gordon Edwards of the CCNR and Faye More, representing the PHCHCC, along with other Port Hope intervenors, will challenge the Commission to do its duty to put the health of people first and refuse to grant the license sought by Zircatec (owned by Cameco) to create a new fuel fabrication line in Port Hope using enriched uranium.    “I believe that it is inappropriate to continue to licence any new nuclear facilities in Port Hope. This small town, with one of the best natural harbours on the north shore of Lake Ontario, has suffered like no other town in Canada from the mismanagement of radioactive waste materials, and from the cumulative insult of radioactive emissions from a number of nuclear facilities in town. It is time to say, “enough is enough”, and put a stop to it.” says Dr. Edwards.    Adds Faye More, “Cameco wants the CNSC’s approval to bring more enriched uranium to its facility in the middle of our town and to a neighbourhood of families with no buffer zone from its uranium emissions and the security risks it poses. This should be as unacceptable to the regulator with a mandate to protect us, as it is to us".    “We have discovered from recent biological testing of former nuclear workers that there is recycled reactor waste contaminating the uranium in Port Hope. The residents tested, including a child, are inhaling insoluble industrial uranium. We reject the assurances from health and regulatory officials that the environment is safe when we know that Port Hope people are inhaling radioactive, heavy metal uranium particles every day that emit alpha radiation inside our bodies.”     Such assurances fail the common sense test and are inconsistent with good medicine and science. Everyone now knows there is no “acceptable” level of second hand tobacco smoke, and independent scientific bodies such as the U.S. National Academy of Sciences have stressed that there is no safe level of chronic exposure to radioactivity. The unnecessary exposures of citizens to ionizing radiation due to improperly sited nuclear facilities must be avoided. It is past time for the Government of Canada to deal effectively with the dangers of uranium in our environment. Background on the Issue From CNSC’s “Record of Proceedings, Including Reasons for Decision”, February 18, 2008    “Following a public hearing held on January 9, 2008 in Oshawa, Ontario, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) announced today its decision on the environmental assessment of Zircatec Precision Industries Inc.’s (Zircatec) project to produce slightly enriched uranium (SEU) CANDU fuel at its facility located in Port Hope, Ontario.    When taking into account mitigation measures identified in the Environmental Assessment Screening Report, the Commission concluded that Zircatec’s project to produce slightly enriched uranium (SEU) CANDU fuel, at its facility located in Port Hope, Ontario, is not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects.     The Commission’s decision was based on its consideration of a screening environmental assessment of the project that was prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA). Further, with respect to the CEAA, the Commission decided not to refer the project to the federal Minister of the Environment for referral to a review panel or mediator.    The Commission therefore can proceed, under the Nuclear Safety and Control Act, with its consideration of a licence application from Zircatec Precision Industries Inc. for the proposed project.

May 22, 2008 New York Times Uranium Producer Warns of Lake Ontario Pollution By Ian Austen OTTAWA — Cameco, the world’s largest uranium producer, has told the Canadian nuclear regulator that its refinery might have leaked uranium, arsenic and fluorides into Lake Ontario. The plant at Port Hope, Ontario, across the lake from Rochester and down the shore from Toronto, first refined uranium for the Manhattan Project during World War II. It has been temporarily closed since July to remove contaminated soil. A spokesman for Cameco, Lyle Krahn, said Wednesday that a computer model created for the cleanup, which is several months behind schedule, indicated that the radioactive and toxic materials have been polluting a harbor adjacent to the factory. The harbor leads directly to the lake. The company notified the regulatory agency, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, about the finding at a meeting last week and now plans drilling tests to confirm the contamination and to measure its extent. “We’re anticipating that material may have been entering the harbor,” Mr. Krahn said, adding that Cameco did not know how long it would take to confirm any possible pollution. A spokesman for the agency, Aurèle Gervais, said: “The Port Hope UF6 plant matter has been ongoing for some time and the harbor issue is a recent development,” using the chemical formula for uranium hexafluoride. In a background paper prepared for the agency’s commissioners last week, its staff concluded that the potential remained for continued water pollution from the plant. Cameco in general and the aging Port Hope refinery, which transforms mined uranium into forms suitable for electrical power reactors, have long been targets of environmental groups and the regulatory agency. After a flood last year closed one of the company’s mines, which produces about 10 percent of the world’s uranium, Linda J. Keen, then the head of the regulatory agency, said her commissioners and staff had a “lack of confidence” in Cameco and its management. Gordon Edwards, the president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, an environmental group in Montreal, said that contamination of the lake had been assumed, given the plant’s age, history and location.“There’s a long history of contamination at Port Hope,” he said. “The whole siting of this refinery is absurd. It’s right in the center of town, it’s on flood plain and right on the lakefront.”The plant was opened in the 1930s by Eldorado Mining and Refining to process radium and has undergone several cleanups. The most recent effort began in July when a construction project at the factory uncovered soil contamination that led to the plant’s closing. At the time, the company said that the shutdown and cleanup would take about two months. Mr. Krahn said the 18 million-Canadian-dollar project, which involves removing soil under the plant and constructing a leakproof floor, will be finished by the third quarter. If drilling confirms lake pollution, Mr. Krahn said that Cameco did not expect that would delay the plant’s reopening.

May 8, 2008 Letter to the Editor from the PHCHCC Dear Northumberland News Editor: (Re “Port Hope Battling Negative Publicity, April 24, 2008). Since the release of the first Port Hope Radiobiological Project results in November, 2007, by the Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee and the Uranium Medical Research Centre, Health Canada and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) have tried to dismiss the biological significance of finding industrial uranium contamination in the nine Port Hope participants. They tell us the Project results are normal for Port Hope and Canadians and that the findings pose no health risk. Health Canada says the Project results are consistent with its own previous studies. Mayor Thompson says that our Committee and UMRC are making “unsubstantiated” and “false” claims that “have been refuted by respected scientific authorities and health authorities”. A huge public relations spin cycle has been created to carry us away from the cold facts of human contamination and dirty uranium. But no one has refuted the Project results. We challenge Health Canada and the CNSC to make public the previous studies they claim to have which show: total uranium, depleted uranium, the synthetic nuclear reactor isotope 236U, the enriched isotope 234U or any form of recycled down-blended uranium in residents of Port Hope and across Canada, including children, chronic industrial uranium and types of uranium not licensed by the CNSC, in the bodies of former workers of Zircatec, Cameco or Eldorado. We challenge them to show us even one report by government or Cameco that shows they knew that Port Hope has had “dirty” uranium for decades, that Depleted Uranium and uranium isotopes enriched 234U and 236U are present in the bodies of residents and nuclear workers and the environment of Port Hope. Did they know and not tell us or did they just find out from the Port Hope Project? Faye More Chair Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee

Public Letter from the UMRC to Hon.Tony Clement, Minister of Health, Health Canada READ LETTER

THE PORT HOPE RADIOBIOLOGICAL STUDIES PROJECT 2007 The Quantitative Analysis of Uranium Isotopes in the Population of Port Hope, Ontario Canada Asaf Durakovic, Axel Gerdes, Isaac Zimmerman Uranium Medical Research Center Peer review conducted by European Association of Nuclear Medicine Copenhagen, Denmark 2007 VIEW COMPLETE PEER REVIEWED STUDY CURRICULUM VITAE ASAF DURAKOVIC, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.P. BELOW - Peer Review Certificate from The European Association of Nuclear Medicine Copenhagen, Denmark 2007

The United States Government Has Acknowledged in Law, Harm from Uranium Exposure to Military Personnel, Atomic Workers and Community Downwinders WHY hasn't the Canadian Govenment? The US. Dept. of Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act and the US Dept. of Justice Radiation Exposure Compensation Act recognize more than 35 diseases, mostly cancers, as associated with ionizing radiation exposure. More than $5 billion dollars has been paid in compensation to nuclear energy workers, military personnel and community downwinders. Uranium exposure has been causing harm to people for decades. USA recognizes 34 illnesses / CANADA recognizes 4 Read more

LISTEN FREE to "Living at the Barricades" Podcasts by Lake Ontario Waterkeeper "Speaking out against pollution" PODCAST - Dec. 03 / 2007 "Uranium Contamination in Port Hope" PODCAST - (1 hr, 2 parts) - Nov 16 / 2007 WATCH - CBC Headline News Coverage - Nov. 13/07 READ - Local news posted

Next