North Shore doctors threaten to resign en masse over uranium exploration

The Gazette
December 4, 2009

Twenty doctors have handed in their resignations at the Centre hospitalier régional de Sept-Îles.

Quebec’s Liberal government must stop uranium exploration near Sept Îles and declare a moratorium on uranium mining activities across the province to avoid the mass resignation of 20 doctors in the North Shore town, a Sept Îles doctor said Friday.

“I want to work in a place where the government listens to citizens and where medical opinions are respected,” said Bruno Imbeault, a pulmonologist at the Centre Hospitalier et des Services Sociaux de Sept Îles.

Imbeault is one of 20 doctors at the Sept Îles hospital who signed an open letter to Health Minister Yves Bolduc pledging to resign unless uranium exploration activities in the area are stopped. The hospital employs 60 doctors in total.

The doctors oppose a proposed uranium mine at Kachiwiss Lake, about 13 kilometres from Sept Îles, because they believe it will harm the environment and the health of area residents.

Imbeault said the impact on health care in the region if one-third of the doctors leave would be “catastrophic”, but the doctors believe they must protect themselves and their families, and could not do so without publicly warning residents.

“Fearing for the health of the population and our own personal health as well as that of our families (particularly our children), we, the signatories, have decided to leave the region, and many of us, the province...” said the letter, sent to Bolduc on Thursday.

The doctors are concerned about radon and other so-called “decay products” of uranium, which can contaminate air and water around a mine and cause lung cancer in humans.

The letter adds that even residents of Montreal, Quebec City and Sherbrooke should be concerned about exposure to radiation because of widespread uranium mining across Quebec

Imbeault said he and his colleagues began discussing mass resignation last month when they learned the Quebec government had authorized access routes to the mine site.

On Wednesday, the Liberal government tabled a new law on mining that did not call for a moratorium on uranium mining, despite protests and demands for a moratorium from the city council of Sept Iles, the Innus of Uashat-Maliotenam, dozens of environment and social groups, the Parti Québécois, Québec Solidaire and several members of the Bloc Québécois. British Columbia and Nova Scotia have declared moratoriums on uranium mining activities .

“If the population of Sept-Îles doesn’t want this project, the government of Quebec will respect their wishes,” Simard said.

But Lorraine Richard, the Parti Québécois MNA for Duplessis riding, which includes Sept-Îles, appealed to Premier Jean Charest to “for once act in the interests of Quebec and for the Sept-Îles region,” saying no one has been listening to opposition to uranium mining in the region.

“The doctors are leaving the Sept-Îes region,” Richard said. “We don’t want uranium in Sept-Îles.”

Read more at:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/North+Shore+doctors+threaten+resign+masse+over+uranium+exploration/2302892/story.html

We will quit if uranium mine opens, say doctors

Alice Springs

Comment: Doctors of Virginia, you need to protest the proposed uranium mining and milling! No Uranium Mining and Milling!

DEBRA JOPSON
November 23, 2009

DOCTORS at the only Aboriginal medical service in Alice Springs have threatened to leave if the Federal Government allows a Canadian company to mine uranium near the town.

Protesters will press Northern Territory MPs to stop their support when Parliament sits in Central Australia tomorrow. They say it threatens the town's future and could set a precedent for other urban centres.

''It's a big issue … It is unprecedented to have exploration for uranium so close to an established city,'' said Isabelle Kirkbride, of Families for a Nuclear Free Future.

Opposition to the mine, 23 kilometres south of the town, at which the Canadian company Cameco has done exploratory drilling, is mounting.

Sixteen doctors from the town's only Aboriginal medical service have written to the federal and Northern Territory governments warning that some will quit if the mine is given the go-ahead.

''They are thinking about the health hazards potentially in contaminated water and radon dust,'' said Koen De Decker, a spokesman for the doctors at the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress.
The doctors wrote to the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and other relevant ministers, because he had promoted closing the gap between the health of indigenous and other Australians, Dr De Decker said.

Allowing the mine would mean the loss of crucial senior medical staff who would be difficult to replace, potentially widening the gap, he said.

''Next year we will probably follow up with further drilling and a feasibility study.''

Jane Clark, a Greens councillor on Alice Springs Town Council, said some saw uranium as an alternative energy source and jobs generator, but locals worried that a mine could pollute the water supply, destroy the growing eco-tourism industry, affect pastoral lands and lead to an exodus.

Click Title or Link to whole:
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/we-will-quit-if-uranium-mine-opens-say-doctors-20091122-isvy.html

Doctors threaten to leave over uranium mine

By Eric Tlozek
Posted Fri Nov 20, 2009 2:00pm AEDT

A group of Alice Springs doctors say they will leave the town if a uranium mine goes ahead in the area.

Uranium company Cameco (Canadian Mining Corp) is exploring a uranium deposit 25 kilometres south of Alice Springs.

"The prompt for writing the letter was borne out of concern, out of deep concern, for the implications of having a uranium mine here, especially in terms of the loss of workforce which could be one of the consequences of having a mine here in town," said one of the signatories, Dr Koen de Decker.

Click Title or Link to whole:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/20/2748844.htm