Australian Nuclear Free Alliance call for health checks near uranium mine
Call for health monitoring near uranium mine, ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), By Sally Bothroyd Apr 22, 2010 A member of the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance says there should be a program to monitor the health of people who live near the Ranger uranium mine. Continue reading
Radiation-caused cancer a risk in Australia’s CT scans
Radiation too high in CT scans, says study The Age, MARK METHERELL, April 8, 2010 AUSTRALIAN CT scans have been found to generate up to a third more radiation than necessary to yield a clear diagnostic image, needlessly exposing patients to an increased risk of cancer. Continue reading
Australian patients not informed on cancer risks from CT scans
Australia’s young doctors ignorant about ionising radiation
Yearly, 400 new cases of cancer caused by CT scans
Martin Ferguson’s confused claims about medical radioactive waste
Waste is not from nuclear medicine , ABC Radio Darwin, 5 March 2010, By Liz Trevaskis
“…….Nuclear radiologist Peter Karamoskos spoke to Leon Compton on the Morning program. He explained that the majority of nuclear medicine procedures do not produce waste that requires long term storage.
He says that “I think the Minister is probably a little bit confused about what he refers to as nuclear medicine…. nearly all nuclear medicine involves short acting radio isotopes which usually decay on site, and then are disposed of into the normal environment.”
“The amount of waste is commensurately small when compared to the vast bulk of the waste which will be stored at the repository, which is the nuclear fuel waste.” http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2010/03/04/2836622.htm?site=darwin
Put Nuclear Waste at Lucas Heights, Not Aboriginal Land – Says Medical Body
MAPW believes that the safest current option for management of this toxic waste is likely to be continued storage at the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor.”
The Medical Association for Prevention of War notes with concern today’s announcement by Energy Minister Martin Ferguson that the Australian Government will pursue Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory as the preferred site for a nuclear waste dump. Continue reading
New study shows low level radiation damage to nuclear bomb survivors
“This study provides the strongest evidence available to date that radiation may increase the rates of stroke and heart disease at moderate dose levels..”
A-bomb survivor data affirm radiation/CVD risk link the heart.org January 19, 2010 | Reed Miller Hiroshima, Japan – Fifty-three-year follow-up data confirm that Japanese atomic-bomb survivors exposed to at least 0.5 Gy of radiation have an excess risk of dying of heart disease or stroke . Continue reading
Airport scanners: radio frequency type better than X ray type
Sorry, Uncle Sam, I refuse to be ionized The Daily Observer (Canada) By DR. GIFFORD-JONES15 Jan 2010
“………Transport Canada reports that more than 40 scanners will be installed in Canadian airports. Fortunately, all of these scanners will use “millimeter wave” technology. This means travellers will be exposed to radio frequency waves that produce a three-dimensional image of a person’s body to detect hidden weapons or explosives. Radio waves are not the same as harmful X-ray ionizing radiation to be used in the U.S. Continue reading
Full-body radiation scanning for air travellers?
Labor still weighing scanner use The Age January 9, 2010 AUSTRALIA is yet to decide whether to boost airport security by using controversial whole-body imaging scanners, which the US Government is now urging other countries to adopt. Continue reading
Australian initiative to reduce medical radiation risks
Rethink on medical imaging radiation to cut risks AUSTRALIAN IT Jennifer Foreshew | October 27, 2009 Continue reading
Where to put Australia’s hospital radioactive wastes?
MP attacks nuclear waste ‘indecision’
ABC News 30 Sept 09The Member for Grey, Rowan Ramsey, says the constant relocation of 10,000 barrels of radioactive waste highlights state and Federal Government indecision. Continue reading
Leukaemia in young children near nuclear facilities
The medical and economic costs of nuclear power
OnLine opinion By Helen Caldicott – 14 September 2009A recent study sponsored by the German government (the KiKK study – Kaatsch P, Spix C, Schultze-Rath R, et al. Leukemia in young children living in the vicinity of German nuclear power plants. Int J Cancer. 2008; 1220:721-726,) examined children who lived near 16 of the country’s commercial nuclear power plants. The results revealed a strongly increased risk of all childhood cancers, particularly leukaemia, the closer the proximity of the children’s residence to the reactor. In particular, the study found that children less than the age five years, living within a 5km radius of the power plant exhaust stacks were more than twice as likely to develop leukaemia compared with those children residing more that 5km away. The KiKK team studied other carcinogenic factors which may be responsible for the cancer clusters but none were found.
Another large study (Baker PJ, Hoel DG. Meta-analysis of standardized incidence and mortality rates of childhood leukemia in proximity to nuclear facilities. Eur J Cancer Care. 2007:16:355-363) – a meta-analysis of the incidence and mortality rates of childhood leukaemia in children living near 138 nuclear facilities in Britain, Canada, Spain, Germany, the US and Japan also demonstrated a statistically significant rate of leukaemia in children less than nine years of age.
A further large review (Laurier D, Jacob S, Bernier MO, et al. Epidemiological studies of leukemia in children and young adults around nuclear facilities: A critical review. Rad Prot Dosim. 2008; 132:182- 190) of children and young adults living near 198 nuclear sites in 10 countries was found to be compatible with the study described above.
It is important to note that the sensitivity to the damaging effects of radiation in early embryonic and fetal life is much higher than in adults, and young children are also particularly vulnerable…………………….
In the light of these two studies it is difficult to understand how Kevin Rudd and the Labor Government can have no moral scruples about our uranium exports.
The medical and economic costs of nuclear power – On Line Opinion – 14/9/2009
Ionising radiation a risk in cancer screens
Cancer fear over early screens
The Australian Sean Parnell | September 08, 2009
MEDIA coverage of the cancer diagnoses of celebrities Belinda Emmett and Kylie Minogue convinced more younger women to have a mammogram but experts are recommending against its use as a screening tool. Continue reading
Asbestos and Uranium
Christina Macpherson 3 Sept 09
It’s hard to get your head around the magnitude of the asbestos scandal, world-wide. Phillip Adams covered this very recently, in ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live (podcast available at ABC Radio National – Late Night Live – Home
Matt Peacock’s new book “Killer Company” details the James Hardie asbestos story in Australia. Another author’s new book tells the world-wide, and continuing story of asbestos contamination, corporate cover-up, and huge profits gained by companies which vanish long before they can be held accountable.
Meanwhile, the same process now kicks on, with uranium mining. But with one significant difference. It is actually easy to prove that a person’s nasty, fatal mesothelioma cancer was caused by asbestos. It is difficult to prove that invisible, unsmellable, tasteless radioactivity has caused a person’s nasty fatal cancer.
Hence the uranium mining corporations, and their investors, can relax. Their money will be made long before the scandalous health cost becomes public knowledge.
1 This month
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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