PHCHCC - National Media Attention

National media attention was required to get the attention of governments, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) and others, says Faye More about the release this week of information that some people in Port Hope are contaminated with uranium.

Ms. More, chair of the Port Hope Community Health Concerns Committee, said local media were inadvertently shunned in the process.

She told The Guide Wednesday that time was of the essence, and she thought the quickest way to get the information out on a press conference to all media outlets was "over the wire".

Unfortunately local print media did not receive the notice sent out last Thursday for a Tuesday morning press conference to take place in Toronto. Northumberland Publishers generates all news locally and does not subscribe to wire services.

"It was miscommunication and a misunderstanding as to how it would reach everyone," Ms. More said. "I sent it out by a means I thought would get it out most quickly."

She said citizens in Port Hope are facing a "huge imbalance" against the governments, the CNSC and the nuclear industry, and the only way to get the medical attention people deserve is by getting the attention of larger media outlets.

"It will take more than our committee and the people of Port Hope to effect change," she said.

The head of the health concerns committee said recently conducted radio-biological testing of nine Port Hope resident produced results that the committee found alarming.

The group says laboratory tests done by the Uranium Medical Research Centre show that contamination by radioactive materials has been found in people living in Port Hope.

Four of the nine people were found to have unusual types of uranium in their bodies, including one who carried measurable quantities of depleted uranium, typically found at nuclear generating stations.

They found chronic, long-term uranium contamination and enriched levels of 234U isotope in both retired workers and civilian subjects, including a 14-year-old. A worker releasing depleted uranium (in urine) 23 years after exposure refers to Eldorado Nuclear from the 1980's.

Ms. More said her committee is hoping to organize a public meeting November 22 to make the findings of the study known to Port Hope residents, but no details were available at press time.