NT told radiation can be 'healthy'
Wednesday, 29 August, 2007
The NT News
Canadian radiation biologist Douglas Boreham was in Alice Springs yesterday.
Mr Boreham, from McMaster University, Canada, was flown to Australia last Friday by uranium mining companies Heathgate Resources, Uranium One and Toro Energy to consult with Centralian community groups about the health effects of radiation.
He met representatives from the Central Land Council in Alice Springs on Monday and spoke yesterday to the Alice Springs town council, mining company employees and community members.
Dr Boreham said radiation was a natural and common phenomenon.
Low doses, such as that in a chest X-ray, can stimulate cells to produce an ``adaptive response'' that protects against further radiation, he said.
"Low-dose radiation is like getting a suntan,'' Dr Boreham said. "Little bits of sun (exposure) produce vitamins and turn on your repair system so you don't get skin cancer.''
Dr Boreham said while UV radiation was different to that from uranium, the same principle applied. Dr Boreham said the ``safe'' level of radiation would be the equivalent of about 20 chest X-rays per year.
But Melbourne-based nuclear radiologist Peter Karamoskos said Dr Boreham's claims were not supported by mainstream science. "There is no safe level of radiation,'' he said.
"That doesn't mean we should go around panicking, but we should try to minimise radiation exposure for everybody.''
Dr Karamoskos said as a nuclear radiologist, he was exposed to higher levels of radiation than the general population, as uranium miners were. "But that's the risk you take,'' he said.
"Ionising radiation is a known carcinogen.
"The US Health Department says that, mainstream science says that. There's no `tanning effect' at low levels -- that's just nonsense.''
Dr Karamoskos, who is vice-president of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, said mining companies were using Dr Boreham's role as a radiation biologist to give their position legitimacy.
Heathgate Resources operates South Australia's Beverley uranium mine, Heathgate Resources is developing SA's Honeymoon mine and Toro Energy owns the rights to the Napperby uranium project, 150km north-west of Alice Springs.