Comment: This says it all: Hippocratic Oath: First, do no harm.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
By David Sherfinski
-The Washington Times
RICHMOND — A coalition of legislators, business leaders and advocates from southside Virginia on Wednesday asked the legislature not to act this session on lifting Virginia’s 30-year moratorium on mining uranium, and instead to study the issue further.
“As is usual, the devil’s in the details, and it’s details, or lack of details, that concerns me the most,” Delegate Donald W. Merricks, Pittsylvania Republican, said at a news conference. “We can’t take these things lightly. We’ve got to be sure.”
Mr. Merrick’s district includes the Coles Hill site that contains a 119-million-pound deposit worth up to $10 billion that Virginia Uranium Inc. wants to tap.
A report from the National Academy of Sciences released last month and paid for by Virginia Uranium concluded that the state has significant hurdles to climb if it is to safely mine uranium.
“People are concerned,” Ben Davenport, chairman of First Piedmont Corporation in Chatham, said. “Sure, we want more jobs … but at what cost?”
The news conference was hosted by the Virginia Coalition and The Alliance for Progress in Southern Virginia.
Mr. Davenport said that they want Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, to form a group to evaluate the economic impacts of the mine, as well as short and long-term liabilities that could result from lifting the ban.
Mr. McDonnell has not taken an official position on whether the ban should be lifted this session, but has repeatedly said that public safety would be his top concern in making a decision.
Chris Lumsden, CEO if the Halifax Regional Health System, which employs 1,200 and serves about 100,000 patients a year, encouraged folks to abide by the Hippocratic Oath: First, do no harm.
Read more:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/18/va-groups-ask-assembly-take-no-action-uranium-mini/
