SABC Health Talk, Environmental Health: 25 February 2017

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SABC Health Talk, Environmental Health: 25 February 2017

Written by / Maintained by Webmaster Thursday, 02 March 2017 10:45

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More in this category: « Rand Water tightens the taps in Gauteng Eastern Basin acid water plant is "sledgehammer" »

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Desperately seeking justice

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Locks hold key to uranium exposure

AS UMESH Bhana was snipping customers' hair this week, he had a novel proposal for them: would they be willing to donate 4cm locks to be analysed for traces of uranium?

Hare wys dalk uraangevaar

Die antwoord op uraanbesmetting in die Wonderfonteinspruit en Soweto lê moontlik opgesluit in mense se hare.

The Federation for a Sustainable Environment co-hosted the recent Nuclearisation of Africa Conference. The event brought together experts and interested parties on matters relating to nuclear energy, waste and mining of radio-active material.

Podcast: Mycle Schneider and Andreas Nidecker

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Symposium highlights harmful effects of uranium mining

Federation For a Sustainable Environment « Nuclearisation of Africa » Symposium 19. Nov 2015 There is a clear global downtrend in the civil use of nuclear power, as documented by the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report and as discussed at the international Symposium on « Nuclearisation of Africa » concluded on the 19th of November in Johannesburg.

“Nuclear waste ‘dangerous for millennia, even millions of years, cannot be shut off”.

Sheree Bega, a multi award winning journalist, of Saturday Star, South Africa’s leading weekend paper, wrote an excellent article titled “Nuclear waste ‘dangerous for millennia, even millions of years, cannot be shut off”. The article was published yesterday in the Saturday Star.

International Nuclearisation of Africa Symposium

The world has become sober to the unimaginable power of uranium after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and recently, Fukushima.A new set of serious health problems, collectively known as Gulf War Syndrome, and epidemiological data from the Wismut cohort have become available to researchers.

Nuclearisation of Africa

Uranium mining can have detrimental effects on the health of the miners and their families. An interdisciplinary team of doctors and scientists will report on this and on efforts of the nuclear industry to promote the civilian use of nuclear power in Africa at a Symposium in Johannesburg, South Africa from 16th to 19th November 2015.

NNR responds; FSE asks for more

On 25 June 2014 the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) had a quarterly meeting with several Non-Governmental Organisations to discuss matters of concern. During this meeting, a presentation was made by Ms M Liefferink, Chief Executive Officer of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment (FSE). Ms Liefferink requested response from the NNR on a number of concerns previously raised. These were documented and the NNR provided a written response.

Contaminating livelihoods

Hundreds of thousands use Wonderfonteinspruit catchment area tainted by mining waste

One man's home is another man's uranium dump

With nowhere else to live, many seek refuge in the radiation wastelands in Gauteng, unaware of the deadly dangers the abandoned mining areas present.

Can we trust our nuclear watchdog

The immediate case of the disaster at Fukushima may have been a natural once, but the official report to Japan's parliament says the ultimate culprit was a weak regulation - a lesson South Africa cannot afford to ignore.

Women's toxic secret to beauty found in the earth

FACIAL TREATMENT: Patience Mjadu, 44 inside her shack in Tudor Shaft informal settlement, with her face smeared with toxic soil from mining waste mixed with skin lotion and water. Mjadu believes the soil helps with her pimples and protects her face from the sun.

Mine dumps - "toxic threat"

Despite intensive and extensive investigations undertaken and reports issued by several government departments several years ago into the health hazards associated with a toxic environment in the Johannesburg region, the situation persists with little to no remedial action taken to date.

Acid sludge poses a serious risk to Gauteng

Soweto, Johannesburg - Thousands of people face evacuation from greater Johannesburg in the Gauteng province - the economic heartland of South Africa - due to toxic sludge from abandoned gold mines laced with high radiation levels.

Residents use radioactive mud as an acne cure

Experts warn old mine dumps could cause birth defects and brain disorders Patience Mjadu can't bear the pimples that dot her face. So, like other women in her impoverished informal settlement, she has resorted to a novel but potentially dangerous form of treatment involving toxic and radioactive mining waste.

Radioactive spillages condemn farmland

In the wasteland that is Johan Kondos’s farm, a lush green field brings hope.“This is what a farm is supposed to look like,” he says, gesturing proudly to his prized lucerne crop, seemingly untainted by the surrounding mining pollution.This lone field, and a few beloved cattle, is all Kondos has left of his farm in Hartbeesfontein in the North West.

South Africa - 'not managing' impact of uranium mining

The government’s failure to address mining hazards is placing the lives of its poorest people at risk from large-scale toxic and radiological pollution, according to a new report.

The battle over uranium: Just how bad is it?

One of the most abundant heavy metals in the earth's crust, uranium is a known radiological element and toxin. It is also a major by-product of gold mining, historically one of South Africa's greatest economic undertakings. The country additionally began mining specifically for uranium in 1949, primarily for export to the United States and other nuclear-intensive countries throughout the Cold War. As the conflict between East and West subsided, uranium mining waned, with the gold output from the Witwatersrand reef also declining. Today, hundreds of thousands of tons of uranium by-product sit in mine dumps scattered across the country, with 100 000 tons of the heavy metal in Gauteng's Western Basin and Far Western Basin alone, according to Frank Winde of the North-West University at Potchefstroom.

Actions required by the Nuclear Regulator

The FSE has presented a proposal of recommended actions by the National Nuclear Regulator to deal with health risks and environmental hazards in the Witwatersrand Goldfields.

The Critical Question

What does it mean for us and our environment, if more and more countries produce energy from nuclear power plants?

Advanced Biochemical and Biophysical aspects of Uranium Contamination

Uranium has been considered both a radiological and also a heavy metal poison, following calcium in its distribution within the body, i.e. building up in bone, and with the principle target for toxicity being the lung and the kidney. Recently, it has been shown that uranium also targets the brain.

Hazards of Uranium

Uranium mining and processing poses a tremendous threat to workers and the population in the surrounding areas through the release of radiation and exposure to heavy metals and chemicals.

THE TIPPING POINT: Inevitable or Avoidable?

"The 2006 Energy Review merely exacerbated the problem. It acknowledged that the UK would not meet its emissions targets without nuclear, but did almost nothing to address the problem of the reluctance of the market to fund a new generation of plants.

MINING

It’s all about the money

The hazardous mining by-product raises two questions – who’s to blame and who should pay. The acid mine drainage crisis is going to cost someone a lot of money, but probably not the people who caused it. The “polluter pays” principle was next to impossible to apply to the acid mine drainage problem in a retrospective way, said Marius Keet, chief director for mine water management at the department of water and sanitation.

Down in the dumps, there's hope

"WHERE there's waste, there's opportunity," said mining hydrologist Kym Morton, ...

Fokus reports on Coal Mine east of Springs

SABC's Fokus of 23 July 2017 addresses the planned Palmietkuilen coal mine east ...

SA NEWS

Addressing waste and pollution of the past

The Federation for a Sustainable Environment is proud to announce the launch of the booklet titled “Rehabilitation of Mine Contaminated Eco-Systems. A Contribution to a Just Transition to a Low Carbon Economy to Combat Unemployment and Climate Change” by Mariette Liefferink of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment (FSE). The booklet was commissioned by the Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) in collaboration with the Friedrick Ebert Stiftung.

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