Legacy of Deaths, Injuries, Accidents and Cover-ups: Food Irradiation Facilities

[Guest guest]

From Aerielle Louise ;-)

Mn. Talk Radio Network

4/5/01

 

The additional info you requested on Food Irradiation

Facilities.

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A Legacy of Deaths, Injuries, Accidents and Cover-ups

 

Supporters of food irradiation often say that

irradiation facilities are

safe. They say accidents rarely happen. They say

injuries and deaths are

infrequent. They say the public is in no danger.

 

The historical record says otherwise.

 

Since the 1960s, dozens of accidents-- as well as

numerous acts of

wrongdoing-- have been reported at irradiation

facilities throughout the

United States and the world.

 

Radioactive water has been flushed down toilets into

the public sewer

system. Radioactive waste has been thrown into the

garbage. Radiation has

leaked. Facilities have caught fire. Equipment has

malfunctioned. Workers

have lost fingers, hands, legs and, in several cases,

their lives. Company

executives have been charged with cover-ups and, in one

case, sentenced to

federal prison.

 

The debate over food irradiation would not be complete

without an

understanding of the risks associated with the

technology itself.

 

Here are some examples of what can go wrong.

 

Accidents at Gamma-Ray Facilities:

 

Decatur, Georgia

 

In June 1988, a capsule of radioactive cesium-137-- a

waste product from

nuclear weapons production-- sprung a leak at a

Radiation Sterilizers plant

near Atlanta. Though the leak was contained to the

site, two of the three

exposed workers spread radioactivity to their cars and

homes.

 

And an estimated 70,000 milk cartons, contact lens

solution boxes and other

containers were shipped out after they were splashed

with radioactive water.

Only about 900 of the contaminated containers were

recalled. The ensuing

taxpayer-funded cleanup cost more than $30 million,

after which a government

report concluded that " the public health and safety

could have been

compromised. "

 

Dover, New Jersey

 

In June 1986, two senior executives of Palo Alto,

CA-based International

Neutronics were indicted on federal charges of

conspiracy, mail fraud and

wire fraud in connection with an October 1982 spill of

600 gallons of water

contaminated by radioactive cobalt-60.

 

After a pump malfunctioned, workers were instructed to

pour the radioactive

water down a shower drain that emptied into the public

sewer system.

 

Workers were also ordered to wear their

radiation-detection " badges " in such

a way to falsify radiation levels. In the words of a

federal prosecutor,

company executives " bamboozled " Nuclear Regulatory

Commission (NRC)

inspectors by delaying an inspection of the facility,

where food, gems,

chemicals and medical supplies were irradiated.

 

A $2 million cleanup included the cost to dispose of

radioactive material at

a nuclear waste dump in South Carolina. Company vice

president Eugene

O'Sullivan, a former member of the U.S. Atomic Energy

Commission, was

convicted of conspiracy and fraud in October 1986.

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

 

In 1979, decontamination began at the state-run

Hawaiian Developmental

Irradiator at Fort Armstrong where, years earlier,

radioactive water leaked

onto the roof and the front lawn. Nearly 100,000 pounds

of steel, 250 cubic

feet of concrete and 1,100 cubic feet of soil were

removed and taken to the

nuclear waste dump in Hanford, Wash. The plant was shut

down in 1980 and the

remaining cobalt-60 was shipped to the University of

Hawaii. Hawaii

taxpayers paid most of the $500,000 cleanup.

 

Parsippany, New Jersey

 

In June 1974, William McKimm, the radiation director at

an Isomedix

cobalt-60 facility, was exposed to a near-fatal dose of

400 rems while

irradiating medical supplies. McKimm was critically

injured and hospitalized

for a month. Two years later, a fire near the cobalt

storage pool released

chemicals into the pool that caused the cobalt rods to

corrode and leak.

 

Radioactive water was then flushed down the toilet into

the public sewer

system.

 

Eventually, concrete around the cobalt-60 pool, as well

as the toilet and

bathroom plumbing, was found to be radioactive and

taken to a nuclear waste

dump. The amount of radiation released into the public

sewer system was

never determined.

 

Rockaway, New Jersey

 

In 1977, Michael Pierson was exposed to a near-fatal

dose of 150-300 rems at

a Radiation Technology facility when a system designed

to protect workers

from radioactive cobalt-60 failed. In 1986, the NRC

cited company executives

for intentionally disabling the system.

 

In 1988-- after more than 30 NRC violations, including

one for throwing out

radioactive garbage with the trash-- company president

Martin Welt and

nuclear engineer William Jouris were charged in federal

court with 11 counts

of conspiracy to defraud the NRC, making false

statements and violating the

Atomic Energy Act. Welt, who threatened to fire workers

who didn't lie to

NRC investigators, was also charged with obstruction of

justice. Both men

were convicted. Jouris was sentenced to probation; Welt

was sentenced to two

years in prison, placed on three years probation and

fined $50,000.

 

Accidents at Electron-Beam Facilities

 

In 1991, a Maryland worker ignored safety warnings and

received a 5,000-rad

dose from a 3 million electron-volt linear accelerator.

He lost four

fingers.

 

In 1992, a mishap at a 15 million electron-volt linear

accelerator in Hanoi

cost the facility's research director a hand and

several fingers.

 

Fatal Accidents in Other Countries

 

In February 1989, three El Salvadoran workers suffered

serious burns and

radiation sickness when they were exposed to cobalt-60.

None had received

formal training to operate the equipment, which was

made by Atomic Energy of

Canada Limited. Eventually, one worker died and the

others had their legs

amputated.

 

In 1975, an Italian worker was exposed to cobalt-60

when he bypassed all

safety controls, climbed onto a conveyor belt and

entered the irradiation

chamber. He died 12 days later.

 

In 1982, a Norwegian worker received a 1,000-rem

cobalt-60 dose while trying

fix a jammed conveyor belt. He died 13 days later.

 

In 1990, an Israeli worker was exposed to cobalt-60

after an alarm failed.

He died 36 days later.

 

In 1991, a worker in Belarus was exposed to cobalt-60

after several safety

features were circumvented. He died 113 days later.

 

Sources

 

" Probe asked at irradiation plant, " Daily Record (New

Jersey), May 3, 1981.

 

" Feds: Dover radiation spill concealed. " North Jersey

Advocate, June 25,

1986.

 

" Executive convicted in radiation spill. " North Jersey

Advocate, Oct. 30,

1986.

 

" Are irradiation facilities safe? " National Coalition

to Stop Food

Irradiation, San Francisco, 1986.

 

" Review of events at large pool-type irradiators. " US

Nuclear Regulatory

Commission, Office for Analysis and Evaluation of

Operational Data,

NUREG-1345, March 1989.

 

" Accelerator safety: Self-study. " Los Alamos National

Laboratory,

LA-UR-99-5089, April 1999.

 

" Canadian-made equipment cited in El Salvador

irradiation mishap. " Toronto

Star, July 9, 1989.

 

" Radiation accident spurs new NRC regulations. " States

News Service, Dec.

21, 1990.

 

" Fool irradiation: A potential unwanted byproduct of

food irradiation? "

Health Physics Society, McLean, VA, January 1999.

 

http://www.mercola.com/article/Diet/irradiated/irradiation_facilities.htm