Reported by Ashley Wills
First Posted: Oct 11, 2012 7:12am
Last Updated: Oct 11, 2012 1:54pm
A hotline has been set up by an anti-nuclear group in Saskatchewan for people to confidentially voice their concerns about uranium mine safety.
"They feel that they can't ask the mining companies the questions, or the regulators, for fear of losing their jobs,” said Pat McNamara, an activist who works with the Committee for Future Generations (CFFG).
The whistle-blower hotline will act as a buffer between employees and companies. The information that is gathered will be presented to Health Canada and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. If the regulators do not act on the information, CFFG will publicize the issues as much as possible, said McNamara.
"We're not trying to shut down the mining industry ... but we're getting so many complaints and so many concerns raised about it,” he said.
So far, four uranium miners from northern Saskatchewan have used the hotline to ask questions about chest pains they experience on the job.
"Like heartburn that builds up over the days that they're working in the mine, and it gets progressively worse until they go home and then it clears up during their days off,” said McNamara, who has written several books on nuclear safety issues.
He said the miners were not told about the difference between internal and external radiation and the potential harm it can cause. He added that he's seeing high cancer rates in some northern communities right now.
The activist has only spent a few months in Saskatchewan, but said that so far he can notice a north and south divide.
“The sense that I get when I’m in Saskatoon is that ‘it’s just a bunch of Indians up north, who cares.’
“When I’m up there, the whites, the Metis and the First Nations people, their attitude is ‘they’re just trying to kill us off so that they can turn it into one big industrial area up here.’”
His goal is to educate the province.
“We’re not trying to shut it down, we’re trying to make it run safely and right now we don’t believe it is safe at all.”
http://www.newstalk650.com/story/anti-nuclear-group-sets-hotline/78948
