Even After 'Dirty Bomb' Exposure, Residents Might Be Allowed Back In

[DoYouEverWonder]

January 3, 2006

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 - The Homeland Security Department, preparing for an attack by terrorists who would spread radioactive material, advised government officials on Tuesday that they should consider permitting people to re-occupy contaminated land and buildings even if they would be exposed to radiation at a level double what nuclear plant workers can legally receive.

The department published a document that stressed trying to balance the health risk of radiation exposure with minimizing the disruption that a “dirty bomb” would cause.

If there is a delay in reoccupying areas evacuated because of contamination, “the disruption and harm caused by the incident could be inadvertently and unnecessarily increased,” the department advised. “Failure to restore important services rapidly could result in additional adverse public health and welfare impacts that could be more significant than the direct radiological impacts.”

The document, published in The Federal Register, listed precise exposure limits for emergency workers and members of the public in the immediate aftermath of a dirty bomb attack.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/03/national/nationalspecial3/03cnd-nuke.html

Don't want to hurt those property values now do we?

[BeHereNow]

1. Well hell, there's the set up for Cheney's Iran-attack

Gee, why would they be telling us this now?
BHN

[HuffleClaw]

2. they sure are transparent aren't they ?

why not just tell us when and where this dreaded 'attack' will take place?

[ebayfool]

3. ... “a nuclear Katrina in the making.”

(bold highlighting is mine) -

snip/

The document issued Tuesday lists a variety of factors, including the cost of cleanup. Mr. Hirsch and a second antinuclear group, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, said that the 10 rem figure would produce cancer or leukemia in one person in four who was exposed to that amount annually for a total of 30 years. The two groups called the advice “a nuclear Katrina in the making.”

snip/

The department characterized its advice as a draft, because, it said, it would take public comment until March 6, but the advice takes effect immediately.


(bold highlighting is mine)

[pinniped]

4. Sure, why not? The air in NY was just fine after 9/11.

.

[bpilgrim]

5. shoot they let are troops and iraqis back in after littering their country

with dirty bombs/DU

shoot, it probably is all part of some future war experiment the sick fucks.

peace

[daleo]

6. This would fit into a plan to use low level nukes on Iran

Because the claim would be that a little radiation isn't really that harmful. This would help set up that meme.

[Eugene]

7. (From AP) "cancers in one of every four people who return"

Government Has 'Dirty Bomb' Cleanup Guide

By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer Tue Jan 3, 9:49 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The government issued cleanup standards Tuesday for a "dirty bomb" terrorist attack
that would in some cases be far less rigorous than what is required for Superfund sites, nuclear power
plants and nuclear waste dumps.

After such an attack, long-term radiation exposure could remain at levels that would be expected
to produce cancers in one of every four people who return to the contaminated sites, anti-nuclear
watchdog groups said after analyzing the new federal guidelines.

<snip>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060104/ap_on_he_me/dirty_bomb_4


Homeland Security makes me feel so safe... NOT!

[TomClash]

8. I wonder where they get those cancer figures

They ARE monitoring and studying the health of 9/11 survivors.

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. According to NPR, from Russia

where people who work with this stuff or in contiminated areas have been subjected to the higher levels of radiation that they are using for a cut off. Nice to see our government has sunk to the level of the Russians.

[ninkasi]

10. It is glaringly obvious

that our present government does not have our best interests at heart. We know this, and for anybody who ever doubted it, Katrina and the tragic aftermath are a prime example. One thing that I believe we can do, although I have no idea how to make it work, is to inform ourselves about what actions small towns and communities can do to protect themselves against government neglect.

Since the current topic is allowing people back into areas which have been exposed to dirty bombs, I remembered an article I read several years ago about sunflowers, and the way they were being used to help clear up radioactive soil around Chernobyl. I googled the subject and ran across this article from 2001

http://www.treepower.org/news/nyttreesphyto.html
snip
" Hundreds of species of plants, together with the fungi and bacteria that infuse the rhizosphere, the ecosystem around roots, represent the botanical equivalent of detox centers, seeking and often breaking down molecules that can harm most other life, soil scientists and botanists say.

There are sunflowers that capture uranium, ferns that thrive on arsenic, alpine herbs that hoard zinc, mustards that lap up lead, clovers that eat oil and poplar trees that destroy dry-cleaning solvents"

I also remember reading that water hyacinths are used by some communities to treat waste water, and that they do a very good job of purification. Until we can get the current administration out, until we can elect Democrats who are not beholden to big business, until we can get corporate personhood revoked...I believe that we can take steps ourselves, within our own communities, to give ourselves some protections.

I realize that my idea is hopelessly naive, and have no suggestions as to how it could work. In other words, I realize that my post is not very practical, but there are people far more intelligent, and more knowledgeable than me on DU, and I offer this only as an idea of possibilities which exist, and which might not be far too expensive to implement.

Here is another article giving information about sunflowers.

http://www.acnatsci.org/education/kye/te/phyto.html

Anyway, we all need to learn as much as we can to protect ourselves, and our communities, against government and corporate abuse and neglect.