Rössing under fire over toxic claims

Popular sentiment appears to be rising against Rössing uranium mine owners Rio Tinto, with scientists and activists from across the globe recently disrupting the British-Australian miner’s annual general meeting (AGM) in London. The company’s critics last month held an open day just prior to the company’s AGM that was held on April 15 and released the damning results of two studies, completed over the course of last year. They listed widespread environmental and health objections to Rio Tinto’s operations in Namibia, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea and America. The company’s detractors include local non-profit organisation Earthlife Namibia and the Commission for Independent Research and Information about Radiation (CRIIRAD). According to Bruno Chareyron of CRIIRAD, their observations at Rössing include radioactivity measurements of the soil, sediment and water in the vicinity of the mine. “It raises concerns regarding the management of the mining operations and the contamination caused by the radioactive waste rock dump and the tailings dam, where the waste products are deposited,” Chareyron said. The researchers also reportedly spoke to 44 current and former Rössing mine workers, 39 of whom complained of health problems. “Of main concern are those workers who started working in the mine in the 1970s and the early 1980s, when safety conditions were non-existent or very poor,” Earthlife Namibia spokesperson Bertchen Kohrs said. “The interviews confirmed that many of these workers are now retired and many suffer or have already died of cancer or other unknown diseases,” she said. Rössing has consistently defended itself against any liability, arguing that workers have always been entitled to their medical records, and that there was no medical evidence of current or former employees at the mine having serious health issues. Some of the findings of the study, conducted by Earthlife Namibia and the Labour Resource and Research Institute (LaRRI), include claims that external irradiation and radon exhalation created by the mine’s waste rock dump, was causing risk to both workers and the general public. Another was the apparent detection of significant increases in the amounts of fluoride, nitrates and sulphates downstream the mine, which was contaminating from the groundwater. The report was read at the Rio Tinto AGM in London last month, along with similar reports from Madagascar, Papua New Guinea and the United States. The researchers made a number of demands, including that Namibia’s Ministry of Health and Social Services be granted unlimited access to all medical records of workers employed by Rössing, and that the company’s tailings and waste dump be covered to avoid dust and radionuclides being carried away by the wind. They have also called on the company to allow independent specialists access to the site and facilities to carry out independent radiation monitoring, and for CRIIRAD in particular to be granted access to baseline monitoring data “in order to better understand the impact of the operations on the radiological and chemical characteristics of underground water in the Khan riverbed.”