Technology versus Fiction: Have New Mexico Environmentalists Been Telling the Truth

While it may be a musing regarding whether Chris Shuey affects the sounds of the Gallup, and other New Mexico, advertising, it does appear Mr. Shuey may have built the inspiration for his career on a uranium-related tragedy. On one other hand, can an ambulance chaser be blamed by someone for attempting to make a living, too? For lack of a Three-Mile-Island episode in laid-back Gallup, New Mexico, Chris Shuey served create Southwest Research and Information Center right into a noisy "expert" counterpoint contrary to the uranium industry by apparently piggy-backing the 1979 uranium mill tailings spill near Church Rock. It was considered among the worst tailings leaks ever to own occurred in The United States. We searched for certain proof of deaths from this drip, but came out dry. Any official published record countering the preceding statement could be welcome.Founded in 1971, the SRIC team established critical advertising standing by pushing the "dire and grotesque" livestock and people health implications of that discharge. But where was the particular damage when it comes to human life and ecological disaster? We obtained the Executive Summary October 1982) (dated of an NMEID record, called, "The Church Rock Uranium Mill Tailings Spill: A Health and Environmental Assessment." The authors of the report concluded, "To summarize, the drip damaged the Puerco River valley setting for a short span, but it had little or no influence on the healthiness of nearby residents." This statement was issued 3 years after the "largest individual release of liquid radioactive waste in the United States" (some 94 million gallons of acidified effluent and tailings slurry ).Some might suppose if the newspaper stories published in 1979 about this discharge have the noise and scent of substandard, yellow journalism. Others may wonder if those stories were more suited only for the absolute most laughable supermarket tabloids. If one were to trust what was published then, the whole population of Gallup, New Mexico must have disappeared off the facial skin of the earth by now. Helping to gas SRIC's present-day anxiety over uranium mining, the environmental group has been arguing that HRI's planned uranium ISL task, near the Church Rock border of the Navajo reservation, might cause ground water contamination, probably with the same seriousness of the prior tailings pour. In a feeling they seem to be evoking terrible memories of that leak. "He is very good at using the media," sighed HRI's Craig Bartels. "It is a few people who have become vocal," explained Bartels as he described the SRIC's resistance to his company's ISL procedure, "especially Chris Shuey, who boasts herself as a journalist."The U.S. Center for Illness Get a handle on (CDC) didn't place much stock in the neighborhood media's sensationalism. These was excerpted from their formal report on the uranium tailings spill:o "The U.S. Centers for Illness Control (CDC), in cooperation with the Church Rock community, discovered number documented individual use of lake water. Six Navajo persons probably exposed to spill toxins were chosen by the CDC and tested at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where they were found to have levels of radioactive material normally found in the human body." Recommendation: No longer action required.o "No public, individual or public wells producing water for domestic use or livestock sprinkling were affected by the drip. Wells attracting water exclusively from sandstone or limestone aquifers may very well never be affected by spill contaminants."o "Based on limited assessment conducted by the CDC, the extra radiation danger from usage of regional livestock is small. The risk is all about the just like the increased risk from cosmic radiation incurred by going from sea level to 5000 feet in elevation."o "Computer modeling identified inhalation as the most important pathway of radiation exposure to man from the discharge. However, testing of airborne dust along the Puerco River in Gallup immediately after the spill revealed only background quantities of radioactivity. Furthermore, twelve months following discharge, radioactivity ranges in Puerco River sediments were paid off somewhat as a result of dilution with uncontaminated stream sediments."The Church Rock occurrence had been claimed upon in the "Journal of Health Physics" (July 1984: Vol 47, Number. 1) in an article entitled, "The Assessment of Human Exposure to Radionuclides from a Uranium Mill Tailings Release and Mine Dewatering Effluent." This report was published by two workers of the U.S. Center for Illness Get a grip on two staff members of the New Mexico Health and Environment Department and a staff person in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Two effective conclusions were reached in this report:"A evaluation of state and national rules that pertain to the consumption amounts computed from the Church Rock data indicated that no exposure limits were exceeded by the spill, or through chronic exposure to mine dewatering effluent.""In light of the presently recognized cancer incidence and mortality risks connected with levels of radionuclides measured at Church Rock and Gallup, we consider that the uncovered populations are too small for investigators to find increases in cancer mortality with acceptable levels of mathematical power. In fact, it could be misleading to establish a cancer) registry with the foreknowledge of low probability of detecting mortality increases."In spite of the clinical reviews, 1986 as Chris Shuey continued to promote the "Puerco River Education" task as late. "The Gallup Independent" lent a hand in selling this worry, and headlined an account, "Drink number Puerco water." In a May Possibly 8th (1986) article, originating (easily) from Albuquerque, where Chris Shuey rests, the writer wrote, "What little water there's in the Rio Puerco nowadays should not be taken by man nor dog, according to the Southwest Research and Information Center of Albuquerque."Perhaps to strengthen his experience as a health authority, Mr. Shuey pursued a Masters degree in Public Areas Health at the University of New Mexico, across the road from SRIC's headquarters. In his thesis, Shuey penned an intrinsic review of the literature for "Biomarkers of Kidney Injury - Challenges for Uranium Exposure Studies" (submitted on April 29, 2002). After presenting this document, Shuey emerged with the initial declaration that uranium leads to kidney cancers.On its website, the American Cancer Society databases smoking, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle while the major risk facets which enhance one's chances in getting kidney cancer (renal cell carcinoma). Risk can be also increased by occupation exposure to certain chemicals. Research discovered they are able to include: asbestos, cadmium (a kind of metal), some herbicides, benzene, and organic solvents, especially trichloroethylene. There is no mention by the American Cancer Society of uranium coverage ultimately causing kidney cancer. Cadmium is another story, however.The problem with first reaching a conclusion and then researching the facts to ensure your preconceived notion negates the scientific procedure. Like, Shuey dances across the problem of cadmium for the duration of his record, but fails to correlate home garbage burning with the risks of cadmium and dioxins as it pertains to kidney-related problems and possible cancers. It appears Shuey could have didn't are the greatest single source of as a potential reason for renal toxicity: trash burning, hazardous air emissions, which happened in New Mexico prior to June 1, 2004. At this time, New Mexico remains among the few states, that has failed to prohibit the burning of electric equipment. Such trash burning supposedly emits large levels of cadmium into the air. May it be that anything as clear as cadmium concentrations might be the danger factor ultimately causing help cancer rather than the proposed uranium?According to medical analyst Dalway Swaine (Trace Elements in Coal, Butterworths: 1990), Cadmium is really a poisonous trace aspect in coal. Coal combustion attributes one tenth of the Cd to the atmosphere, exactly like volcanoes and is recognized as to become a minor source of atmospheric cadmium. The issue might not be uranium at all, but other chemicals. In Santa Fe.It is apparently little surprise that SRIC seems to be less concerned with the public health than with their anti-nuclear plan however, fund cadmium emissions to be reduced by raisers, aside from anti-coal mining fund raisers, mightn't result in sell-out superstar dishes. Usually, the public a reaction to an environmentalist is just a warm and fuzzy experience, "Wow, here's a person who certainly cares about our future." SRIC has carefully dealt with the third-world-like Navajo Nation, which instantly brings out the sympathy from any liberal-minded individual. Certainly, when StockInterview.com surveyed Shuey, he was on the reservation in a gathering. His widely exhibited concern for the Navajo is good. At the same time, one should also ponder that if probably the most frequent cause of death among Navajo people is alcohol abuse (usually accompanied by driving), then why hasn't SRIC worked more closely to lessen that public health issue?Visit the borders of any reservation and you'll find piles of alcohol, alcohol and wine bottles. One littered stop near Crownpoint, New Mexico took on the character of a landfill. Where are SRIC's mercy cries for the abused Navajo? More Navajos have died because of this of automobile accidents while intoxicated than from fifty years of uranium mining. But again, that may be of little concern to an environmentalist group. Navajo Region president Joe Shirley, Jr. May make better usage of Mr. Shuey by asking him, "Can you help us out with the liquor issue, instead?"COPYRIGHT 2007 by StockInterview, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.