By Graeme Hosken, Shaun Smillie
Former workers at the Pelindaba nuclear facility who suffer serious diseases linked to radiation exposure could have contracted their illnesses from other sources.
This was the word on Monday from department of minerals and energy's chief director for nuclear energy, Tshidiso Maqubela. He also accused the press of causing "panic" by publishing articles on Monday detailing former workers' ailments.
"Don't think that breast and lung cancer is just linked to nuclear exposure. There are multiple causes such as from chemical substances," he said.
Nevertheless, the Nuclear Energy Corporation of SA (Necsa) announced on Monday that it was to correlate the medical records of 118 former Pelindaba employees and hand over this information to environmental group Earthlife Africa, which had requested them.
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| 'What happens if these people are not sick because of radiation exposure?' |
Maqubela's comments come after an Earthlife-commissioned study and the stories of a number of former Pelindaba employees who have approached Earthlife, claiming they are suffering from illness associated with radiation exposure.
The diseases include various cancers, tumours, neurological disorders and even miscarriages.
"How different is the incidence of lung and breast cancer among former employees of Pelindaba to that of the rest of the country?" Maqubela asked.
"I feel that we don't have all the facts to establish a probable cause, right now." He added that his department was awaiting the findings of a Necsa probe into the allegations.
Maqubela said newspapers had been alarmist in its reports on Monday about the medical problems of former Pelindaba workers.
| Democratic Alliance has criticised the government's initial response |
"There is no reason to panic. What happens if these people are not sick because of radiation exposure?" Maqubela said.
But Victor Munnik, a spokesperson for Earthlife Africa, countered that radiation exposure and these types of illness are well documented and have been researched.
"This has been well-known and documented since the (atomic) bombs in Japan (during World War II). This has been overseas and we need similar health studies done here," he said.
Munnik said his organisation had initiated its study because of rumours of former Pelindaba workers suffering from diseases associated with radiation exposure.
Meanwhile, Necsa is in the process of setting up an "independent" probe into the Earthlife claims.
"We are taking the allegations seriously - this involves the lives of people. We plan to get to the bottom of this and dig deep," Necsa spokesperson Nomsa Sithole said on Monday.
Later this week Necsa will announce the name of the team leader who is to lead the investigation.
"Once this person has been selected, he will appoint others who will be apart of the investigation panel," said Sithole.
Earthlife, however, has already questioned how independent the study would be. "What we would like to see is the study under a steering group, representing all the stakeholders, including us," said Munnik.
Necsa has said that it is currently collecting and correlating 95 medical records of previous employees that it will be handing over to Earthlife. This will bring the number of files Necsa has given over to Earthlife, to 118.
Some of the employees had worked at Pelindaba as long as 15 years ago.
Both Sithole and Maqubela said they were happy with Pelindaba's current safety record. However, when asked about Pelindaba's safety record under the apartheid regime, Maqubela declined to comment.
The examination of the medical records and the staff, believed to have become ill from exposure to radiation, comes less than a week after Earthlife Africa claimed that nuclear waste at a calibration facility at Pelindaba represented a health hazard for people.
The site is close to the Atteridgeville and Saulsville townships - home to more than 1,2 million people.
The Democratic Alliance has criticised the government's initial response, saying it will quiz Minerals and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka in parliament.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of Pretoria News on May 03, 2005
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