Children exposed to radiation

Page 1

At least 20 people, the majority under the age of 14, in a northern Ontario reserve have been exposed to radioactive dust and gases from vandalized lights being tested on a community helicopter landing pad.

The lights, newly developed tritium-powered units, were being tested in Kashechewan, as well as three other reserves, to guide air ambulances to helicopter landing pads. On Sept. 6, children vandalized the pad, smashing the radio-active lights and exposing themselves to levels of radiation equivalent to almost a full year's maximum dose. "Why wasn't I told about he hazards of this lighting system when it was installed?" asked Chief Andrew Reuben. "Because if we had been told about the hazards, we would have asked for some other type of lighting.."

Reuben is angry signs weren't put up around the landing pad warning of the health dangers of broken lights, and that the community wasn't fully informed of the hazards.

"Everything is always after the fact, we're never told these things until something like this happens."

The high-power lights, approximately the size of a car battery, were installed in the community in 1992 because they lack a reliable source of power, said a spokesperson from the Atomic Energy Control Board. Robert Potvin said the Ontario Ministry of Health applied for a license for the lights to be placed in four reserves.

"One of the many considerations was that this community did not have a reliable source of power," said Potvin. "This was a way to provide lighting for air ambulance operations in a safe and reliable manner."

Tritium lights have been used before, but as lower power lighting. The higher-powered units met all the AECB safety standards for what they were designed to do, under normal circumstances, Potvin said. They were labelled with a small sticker with a radiation symbol, saying they contained tritium, and the manufacture date.

But that bit of safety, backed by lab tests and structural designs embedding the lighting concrete, proved inefficient on the field trial in Kashechewan.

Children between the ages of 11 and 13 were able to pull the light stands out of the ground, break through bullet-proof plastic which encased the tubes holding the tritium, and release the radioactive gas and dust.

The health ministry was informed of the vandalism the next day but the people exposed to the gases and dust were not tested until several weeks later due to bureaucratic bickering over whose responsibility if was to clean up.

Once informed of the hazard, local peacekeepers rounded up the vandals and the people who might have been exposed to radioactive dust from the children's clothing. Radiation levels in their bodies were checked through urinalysis and showed many had received in a brief blast of exposure approximately two-thirds of the maximum allowable limit of radiation allowed in industry over a year.

"It's pretty hard to translate what radiation is and the long-term effects it has to kids that don't even speak English," said Reuben. "We don't know what's going to happen to these kids in the future, that's the worrying part of it."

The high-powered tritium lights were removed from the other three communities shortly after the Sept. 6 incident and the AECB is looking into upgrading the safety standards to be put in place should another application for the lights be made.