The Long View

"Trying is the touchstone to accomplishment.." Paul von Ringelheim, American Artist, 1933-2003

Small towns seem to have a mystical power. They foster a kind of enduring presence where communities can flourish. They’re family-friendly places where people meet and interact, ultimately building a strong sense of identity based on the shared belief that in the long run, destiny is in their hands.

Port Hope, Ontario is one of these places. Nestled on the shores of Lake Ontario, this hamlet evokes images of a rural community where farmers still gather to talk at the feed stores and moms sit on the front porch while happy children play on the front lawn.

Proud of its Loyalist lineage and association with the Red River Rebellion of 1885, this small town was founded in 1789. Situated well away from the rampant development of mirrored glass towers that represent the regenerative power of predatory capitalism and thousands of concrete condos that successfully alienate us from our strongest allies - each other; families are happy here, living and thriving in community. Their dreams of a safe, simpler life have been realized.

Dreams in Jeopardy

But something evil is lurking in this peaceful place. It’s skulking in the soil, the water, even the air. The town is plagued by an invisible killer - uranium contamination. Among the well tended clapboard houses and flourishing gardens, sit two nuclear industry facilities. For generations, these facilities have been operating without a buffer zone between the themselves and the good people of Port Hope.

Now, above-average levels of radioactive metals as well as arsenic, radon and lead lie under playgrounds, backyards, farmers' fields and in the harbour resulting in the largest cleanup of radioactive soil in North American history.

Some residents pleaded with the federal government for years to set up an impartial study to determine if there was any cause for alarm for those who live in the processing plants’ shadows. People were getting sick the residents claimed. Women and children were contracting brain cancer in higher numbers local studies showed. And what of our future generations they asked.

In response, the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Office, which is handling the cleanup for Natural Resources Canada, cited an old 1994 study that looked at potential contamination, stating there were no “short-term health risks” and radiation levels were well within acceptable standards. Old science aside, in seems none of the $260 million the federal government will spend to manage the low level waste can be made available to study the health of the very community which contributed a loyal work force to the nuclear industry for over 70 years.

Taking Matters into Their Own Hands

So the concerned citizens side-stepped the regulators. They organized fund raising walks, silent auctions and sold chocolates to raise the $11,000 that was needed to send test samples overseas for analysis. Samples from four former nuclear workers and five residents were all they could afford.

The results reviewed by accredited scientists from the Uranium Medical Research Centre in Germany found three of the now retired workers - some of whom haven't been near the plant in more than two decades - still tested high for uranium exposure. Contamination with either depleted uranium or uranium-236 was found in 4 of 9 test subjects.

Damaged Reputations
Rebuttals from other town folk who still work at the plants; the mayor who is trying to protect her town's 'damaged' reputation; and the Canadian government who took issue with the commissioned study and sent their specialist to debunk the contamination study, set up a perfect little storm of rebuttal. Together, they argued, uranium processing is safe and it provides the community with its' economic wellbeing.

So What's the Threat?

It could be said that it would be relatively easy for the government to clear up a lot of the confusion and fear around the uranium issue if they just sponsored the study. So why does the government feel threatened by an independent study, complete with the costs to health care, weighed against the economic benefit of the nuclear industry?

Perhaps it's the bogey man in the accountability closet. Perhaps it’s the mounting evidence of well documented studies that continue to show the danger of inadvertent exposure and toxicology of uranium isotopes in both military personnel and civilians employed in the nuclear industry or living in the vicinity of uranium processing plants worldwide.

Uranium and DNA

Or perhaps it's the new research that uranium can bind to and adversely affect human DNA. The research led by Northern Arizona University sheds light on the connection between exposure to depleted uranium and Gulf War Syndrome and increased cancers and birth defects in the Middle East and Balkans. This data suggests that uranium may be directly genotoxic and may, like chromium, react with DNA by more than one pathway.

Civilian nuclear power continues to be one of the most highly subsidized industries on the planet with much of that financial burden carried by the public.

The unholy alliance of commerce and government worldwide count on their citizens looking the other way when the carrot of economic growth is dangled. There are safer, less expensive alternatives already in the marketplace and green house gas emissions can be reduced by 50 per cent over the next 30 years with already existing technology. Yet Cameco, the largest uranium producer in the world, which is located in Port Hope, continues to rake in record earnings with the support of the Canadian government.

Power of One

There are lessons here for all of us. As humans, we seem to be divided into two camps. Those of us who do nothing to effect change, living under the delusion that everything will be fine if we don't make a fuss; and those who are driven to action, in part, because of a blatant disregard for social justice usually inflicted by the powers that be.

This small group of residents in Port Hope looked outside the choices they were presented with and were brave enough to take on the stuff that nightmares are made of to protect not only themselves but future generations. In the long view, their radical thinking and brave actions make them the heroes of their own dreams and after all, isn't that what we all strive for?

Until next time,

TLR
Editor

 

 

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