Uranium Updates: 'Heal, Baby, Heal' - 'Blast, Baby, Blast': Cove Residents Begin 'Journey To Healing'

Comment:  No to uranium mining everywhere, it just makes people sick and kills them!

Saturday, May 01, 2010
By Kathy Helms
Dine Bureau
Gallup Independent

COVE, Ariz – It's been nearly 70 years since uranium mining began on the Navajo Nation and the first of 231 mines opened in Cove, Ariz. Residents say the uranium also produced a monster, or Nayee, that 42 years after the mining in Cove stopped, is still making people sick.

For the small community, Thursday was a historic day. Representatives of Navajo Area Indian Health Service rolled into the chapter house parking lot with an 18-wheeler, its Wellness on Wheels Van, to offer free health screenings and education.

The “Community Uranium Exposure – Journey to Healing” program was congressionally mandated through a five-year plan to look at community uranium exposure. It focuses on people who have been exposed to uranium by living in a certain community rather than working as a uranium miner or miller.

“The health screening is really general health screening. It's what we would do if someone came into a clinic for their annual physical exam,” said Lisa Allee, program director, based at Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock. But they also have participants complete questionnaires relative to uranium exposure.

“For example, it asks about where they get their water; if they are eating their own livestock, where do the animals graze; how close to a mine or mill do they live; did they ever live with a miner and did that person come home with dust on their clothing or boots; and did they travel with that miner or miller,” Allee said.

“That's a very common story: 'My father was a miner, we traveled with him and we played in the mine, and we drank water out of the mine.'”

There really isn't a great way to screen people for uranium in their bodies, Allee said. “A urine uranium test is expensive and its usefulness is somewhat questionable because uranium can be cleared through the kidneys in three days.” If a person tests positive, they probably were exposed in the last week. But if it's negative, it doesn't mean they were not exposed; it's just not in their urine.

“We're checking for the 'footprint' of uranium – the effects it had when it was there, or if it's there currently. The footprint we know with pretty good certainty is kidney problems, so monitoring how people's kidneys are functioning is very important,” she said. Beyond that, while there are many suspected health results, western medical studies are inconclusive. “More research needs to be done,” she said.

Perry Charley of Dine College said that of the 231 mines in Cove, Mesa No. 2 Mine was the biggest producer of uranium with 1,285,000 pounds of ore. Though tribal and federal officials say 202 of those mines have been reclaimed, Charley begs to differ.

“There are 84 mines with problems remaining. These mines are not reclaimed or are situated in very precarious situations. To open them up is going to cause more environmental degradation,” he said.

Kathleen Tsosie grew up in Cove and was raised by her grandparents until the time of their death. Her grandfather, two of her uncles and her father all worked in the Mesa 2 area, where she and her grandmother used to herd sheep. There were some uranium tailings piled here and there, and naturally, she and her friends and family were exposed.

“They were considered corn pollen, because they were yellow. What did we know when we were little?! I used to play around in those and then later we were told, 'Don't be playing around there, it's not safe,'” she said. “Just like everybody else's story, we had picnics near the mine, drank the water, inhaled the dust from my father's clothes when he came back. I'm like the third generation.”

A few years ago Tsosie was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was the biggest challenge of her life. She had to go through chemotherapy, a mastectomy, and radiation treatments.

“I encountered the biggest bone ache for over two years. My bones were constantly aching until last year, Aug. 12. I'm finally pain-free, like 95 percent. I'm still going through my everyday medicine for the next five years. I also get checked every four to six months by the doctors in Farmington at the cancer center. They're very, very excellent.”

They also have a support group and Tsosie started meeting with them before she ever went in for surgery. “I gained a lot of sisters,” she said, and was one step ahead of everything, it seemed, because they advised her on what kind of medicine to take, what kind of lotion and makeup to use, and even which exercise was best.

Mary Helen Begay of Oljato lives about a mile from her mother-in-law, Elsie Begay, a central figure in the documentary, “The Return of Navajo Boy,” which was shown to the Cove audience. Both women were at Thursday's screening along with documentary co-producer Jeff Spitz.

Federal and tribal environmental officials are only now beginning to address contamination from the Skyline Mine directly behind Elsie's home in Oljato.

“It's pretty much about the same all over,” said Mary Helen. “I think the government should come back and clean up whatever they left behind. It's their duty to clean up everything. If it was done back in the earlier years they could have prevented a lot of health problems and health issues we're dealing with right now.”

Read more:
http://nativeunity.blogspot.com/2010/05/uranium-update-heal-baby-heal.html