Canada’s nuclear agency has admitted it erred in allowing radioactive lights to be installed in three west coast communities without any warnings to local officials.
In one of the communities, Kashechewan, 16 children were exposed to almost an entire year’s maximum allowable dose of radiation after some of the lights were broken at a helicopter landing pad in early September.
The children were exposed when some of them found radioactive material inside the lights that glows in the dark, which they smeared on their arms. The radiation exposures spread when the kids came into contact with their friends and health workers. In all, three adult health employees also received doses of radiation.
Kashechewan Chief Andrew Reuben said he holds the Ontario government responsible for the exposures. “If we had been told, we would have made sure all the proper precautions were made or in the other case, we probably would have not approved it anyway (the installation of the lights). That’s why they didn’t ask us,” Chief Reuben said.
The lights were installed in Kashechewan, Attawapiskat and Fort Albany in T 991 by the provincial Health Ministry’s Emergency Ambulance Service. Community members weren’t told the lights contained a radioactive material called tritium. No one in the other two communities has been affected.
At the time of the incident in Kashechewan in September, there were no warning signs or security to warn people about the potential danger.
Following the incident, the tritium lights in all the communities were removed and replaced with reflectors. In Kashechewan, all but a few fragments were recovered. People are being encouraged to come forward with the fragments through radio announcements and posted notices.
The Atomic Energy Control Board, the federal agency that regulates the nuclear industry, admitted on Dec. 2 that the communities weren’t told about the radioactive material before the lights were installed.
The AECB also met with Ovide Mercredi, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, but the meeting left Mercredi wanting. “While they state that this level of exposure is not dangerous, they also acknowledge there is always a remote possibility of damage that will show in the future. Clearly in my view, no amount of exposure to radiation is acceptable,” he said.
Government officials attempted to minimize the health impact of the exposures. “Their exposure was very low and there’s no health consequences or health problems to be expected from it,” said AECB spokesman Bob Potvin in an interview with The Nation.
Roger Johnson, a regional official with Health and Welfare Canada, agreed, saying everyone who’s been tested is within “normal limits” of radiation exposure. “Tritium has what we call a biological half-life of 15 days, so it should be all cleared, most of it,” Johnson said.
Chief Reuben said everybody is telling the community not to worry about it. “But everything is in technical language and it’s difficult to translate to make people understand the seriousness of it,” he said. “We don’t want people to panic, but at the same time this is dangerous.”
The AECB says a final report on the incident will be forthcoming in a few weeks and sent to Kashechewan and Chief Mercredi.
