Nuclear Weapons: The Final PandemicPreventing Proliferation and Achieving Abolition

Health Status of Indigenous PeopleAround Jadugoda Uranium Mines

Shakeel Ur RahmanNational Secretary

Indian Doctors for Peace and Development

Study on health status of indigenous people living

around Jadugoda Uranium mines

Dr. Shakeel ur RahmanDr. Satayajit Kumar Singh

INDIAN DOCTORS FOR PEACE AND DEVELOPMENT

Supported byPloughshare Fund

Jadugoda Uranium Mine-fact file• Mining operation going

for last 40 years in Jadugoda, Bhatin & Narwapahar mines

• UCIL-100% Govt. undertaking

• Around 4000 workers and 1000 contractual labourers engaged with mining activities

• More uranium mines found – in Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh & Meghalaya.

• People’s protest on

Universe of the study

Villages around• 3 mines• 3 tailing ponds• 1 ore processing plant

Sample Size

• 2118 households & a population of 9116 in study village

• 1956 households & a population of 8567 in control villages

Methodology

• Structured questionnaire

• Focused Group Discussion

• Data Analysis on Microsoft excel

• P-value and odds ratio calculated to measure statistical significance

Key Findings-Congenital Deformities

Distribution of Congenital deformities among children

4.40%

2.40%

0.00% 1.00% 2.00% 3.00% 4.00% 5.00%

Study village

Control village

Distribution of death of children due to congenital deformities

9.25%

1.70%

0.00% 2.00% 4.00% 6.00% 8.00% 10.00%

study village

control village

Key Findings-Primary Sterility

Married couples who did not conceive even after 3 years of

maariage

9.60%

6.27%

0.00% 2.00% 4.00% 6.00% 8.00% 10.00% 12.00%

Study village

Control village

Key Findings-Cancer Deaths

Cancer as cause of death

2.87%

1.89%

0.00%

0.50%

1.00%

1.50%

2.00%

2.50%

3.00%

3.50%

study village control village

Key Findings-Life Expectancy

53.94%

68.33%

Death Before 62 years of age

Study village

Control village

Inadequate Safety Measures

• 24th Dec 06-a pipe bursts • Radioactive waste spilled

in a creek• No alarm mechanism -

Villagers informed authorities

• Reaction time-9 hr• Killing riparian life• Waste leaked into

Subernekha river• 1986-tailing dam burst &

water flowed to villages

Inadequate Safety Measures

• Open dumping of mine tailings

• Carriage of uranium ore in uncovered dumpers

• Till 90’s tailing ponds used as children’s playground, open grazing area

• Authorities supplied mine tailings for construction material to villagers

• Gross violation of ALARA

Conclusion

In uranium mining operation area

• Primary sterility is more common

• More children with congenital deformities are being born and congenital defect as a cause of death of a child is also high

• Cancer as a cause of death is more common

• The life expectancy of people is less and more people are dying in their early ages

Estimating the risk• Recommended dose limits for

radiation exposure set by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) are 20 milli Sievert/year for workers in the nuclear industry & 1 mSv/year for the general public.

• These recommendations set in 1991, and are significantly lower than levels previously thought “safe”.

• Study around Jadugoda uranium mine by Hiroaki KOIDE of Kyoto University, Japan in 2004, confirms that the amount of air-gamma dose exceeds 1 (1mSv) per year in the villages and reaches 10 mSv/y around tailing ponds. The strength of pollution in the tailing ponds is 10 to 100 times higher than the place without contamination.

Recommendations

• To have risk assessment data

• Biomarker studies e.g. chromosomal aberrations

• Study on non-radiological toxicities e.g. chemical toxicity on kidney, bone

India’s Navajo Nation

• The media in India and USA is going gung-ho on Indo-US nuclear deal. This exhilaration cannot cloak the miseries of thousands of credulous indigenous people suffering the effects of uranium mining in India due to poor technical and management practices in existing mines.

Join hands to shield them from uranium radiation

hazards