Miscellaneous Articles
Shades of hope for uranium's forgotten victims
The days of unregulated production and government secrecy are gone. But as the uranium industry revives in the West, health problems from the last boom still plague communities, and victims are still fighting for recognition.
On a dark night in 1967, Reed Hayes stepped out onto the gangway over the uranium thickener tank. He was replacing a light bulb during the graveyard shift at the now-demolished Atlas uranium mill in Moab, Utah. He stumbled, reached desperately for the safety line, and grabbed nothing but air. A worker on the previous shift forgot to secure it.
"All of a sudden I go plop!" Hayes recalled. "I go clear to the bottom. I'm in nitric acid, sulfuric acid, uranium yellowcake, and caustic soda. If I hadn't been a good swimmer, I probably would not have gotten out of there."
Since that day 43 years ago, Hayes has suffered from persistent skin problems. On the day of his interview for this story, he called from the emergency room to reschedule.
"Every once in a while it flares up real bad," he explained.
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A nuclear paradox
The nation's first uranium mill in 25 years promises to bring good jobs and a stable economy - and a history of health impacts, environmental harm and unstable prices - to a region still struggling in the wake of the industry's last bust.
PARADOX, Colo. - In Colorado's far western reaches is a valley called Paradox. Unlike most, it is cut crosswise through the middle. The Dolores River runs perpendicular through it, creating a geologic anomaly that is also the valley's namesake.
Brilliant orange cliffs cradle the valley floor under the white gaze of Utah's La Sal Mountains. Sagebrush plains and irrigated hay fields are broken only by herds of cows and the tiny hamlets of Bedrock and Paradox. Within the region's perplexing geology run rich veins of uranium, fuel for the nation's incipient nuclear renaissance.
A proposal to build the nation's first uranium mill in 25 years has divided the community there between those who see good jobs and a stable economy and neighbors fearful of uranium's history of health impacts, environmental harm and unstable prices. Both sides recognize that the proposed Piñon Ridge uranium mill - fed by ore from up to 41 nearby mines - could transform this quiet corner of Colorado into the fountainhead of the nuclear fuel industry.
"As far as that mill here, boy we need it," said Mike Moore of the Western Small Miner's Assoc., based in nearby Naturita. "Not only financially, but the whole area, the country needs it."
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Dengue Re-emerges in U.S., Spurring Race for Vaccine
For the first time in more than 65 years, dengue has returned the continental United States, according to an advisory the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued in late May. While a few cases were reported earlier, they were primarily in Americans who had caught the virus abroad or at the Texas-Mexico border.
The upsurge is not unexpected. Experts say more than half the world's population will be at risk by 2085 because of greater urbanization, global travel and climate change. Over the past 30 years, a global outcry against using the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT, has led to the resurgence of the mosquito, a voracious consumer of human blood and carrier of infectious disease.
Epidemics have become routine in Latin America, a continent on the verge of becoming highly endemic. Outbreaks are today raging in Brazil, Guatemala and other nations. Thailand, within a week of its annual dengue season this year, has already reported 18,000 cases and 20 deaths, according to the Ministry of Public Health.
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Smarter Lunchrooms Lead Kids to Eat More Salad
ScienceDaily (June 30, 2010) - Providing healthier food choices for our nation's schoolchildren is a hot-button issue in Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign. And a team of researchers from Cornell University have recently identified one simple solution to help schools serve more fresh vegetables and salad items.
Laura Smith, a researcher at the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, presented the findings of the study "Convenience Drives Choice in School Lunchrooms" at this week's Experimental Biology conference in Anaheim, Calif.
In a year-long study in an upstate New York middle school, researchers examined the effect of moving the salad bar to a more prominent location in the cafeteria. Results show that sales of certain salad bar items increased by 250-300%.
"It wasn't a big move," Smith explained. "From its original location against a wall, we moved the salad bar out about four feet, in front of the cash registers."
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EPA voids air-quality permits for Texas firms
HOUSTON — The US Environmental Protection Agency yesterday officially overturned a 16-year-old Texas air permitting program it says violates the Clean Air Act, leaving some of the country's largest refineries in a state of limbo.
The move comes after years of backdoor bickering, negotiations, and public arguments between the EPA and Texas. The argument recently escalated from a battle over environmental issues into a heated political dispute over states' rights.
Governor Rick Perry has been using the disagreement to drive home his contention that President Obama's administration is overreaching, and he said in a statement yesterday that “Texas will continue to fight this federal takeover of a successful state program.''
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Trailers: "formaldehyde...It's not a big deal"
"In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, they became a symbol of the government's inept response to that disaster: the 120,000 or so trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to people who had lost their homes.
"The trailers were discovered to have such high levels of formaldehyde that the government banned them from ever being used for long-term housing again.
"Some of the trailers, though, are getting a second life amid the latest disaster here - as living quarters for workers involved with the cleanup of the oil spill.
"Ron Mason, owner of a disaster contracting firm, Alpha 1, said that in the past two weeks he had sold more than 20 of the trailers to cleanup workers and the companies that employ them in Venice and Grand Isle, La.
"Even though federal regulators have said the trailers are not to be used for housing because of formaldehyde's health risks, Mr. Mason said some of these workers had bought them so they could be together with their wives and children after work.
"'These are perfectly good trailers,' Mr. Mason said, adding that he has leased land in and around Venice for 40 more trailers that are being delivered from Texas in the coming weeks. 'Look, you know that new car smell? Well, that's formaldehyde, too. The stuff is in everything. It's not a big deal.'"
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