Thursday, April 14, 2011

RADIATION IN THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

Well this is certainly going way out of my area of expertise however it is an environmental issue and I certainly don't believe that Woolwich Township are miraculously immune from the negative health effects of it. Yesterday's K-W Record carries this story: "Radiation worries heat up Queen's Park" pg. A1. An N.D.P. M.P.P. asked in the legislature whether the government was testing milk for radiation. Apparently there indeed have been detectable increases in background radiation levels in both Canada and the U.S. due to the disaster in Japan involving a nuclear energy plant.

Three points have me concerned. "In Ontario, there is routine monitoring of the drinking water supply, said Dr. Ray Copes..." Really? Then how come we don't have routine test results published for our drinking water here in Waterloo Region?
Secondly "Ontario Environment Minister John Wilkinson said there are no radiation problems with the province's drinking water". Really? Then how come we don't have routine test results published for our drinking water here in Waterloo Region?
Thirdly I'm concerned with the very last sentence in this article: " Tests occur in the vicinity of the Pickering, Darlington, Bruce, Chalk River and Michigan's Fermi reactors.". Really? We have increases in background radiation coming across the ocean from Japan but we are only testing radiation levels nearby and local to our nuclear reactors? Does Japanese radiation have better legs than Canadian and American radiation? Also this third quote makes the first two quotes look awfully deceptive. The first two quotes clearly give the impression that the Province are testing all our drinking water whereas the third quote says not. You don't have to be an expert to wonder how much spin we the citizens are receiving. Radiation can cause cancers. Once again the authorities are masters at looking at individual toxins and carcinogens and pretending that just because 10 individual compounds are below their individual health standards that there are no cumulative or synergistic effects. The reality is that there are such effects and to date they simply haven't been scientifically quantified.

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