Poisoned by a toxic environment
Radiation levels, dust poses “health hazard” in Snake Park
DAVID van Wyk’s smart Geiger counter flashes a bright-red warning as he holds it inside Mpho Molokwane’s concrete yard.
“Look, how it’s climbing – it’s 10 microSieverts per hour (of exposure),” remarks an incredulous Van Wyk as he and DA branch chairperson Zandile Dlokova watch the radiation level detected on the device soar.
A minute later, looking worried, he announces: “It’s 30 microSieverts per hour! This is a very radioactive house. We suspect a contractor used mining sand to build it.”
It’s his second-highest reading ever.
Inside Mol o k wane ’ s cramped home, the radiation level hovers between 16 and 17 microSieverts per hour – consider that a normal background reading is 0.10 microSieverts per hour, Van Wyk says.
“When it goes over one it becomes a problem, by 10 you should really think of not staying in that area for too long. When it gets to 20 or 30 per hour, it really becomes serious.”
Molokwane, a pensioner lives in Snakee Park with her 10-year-old grandson, Neo, who suffers from cerebral palsy.
Their squat house is in the looming shadow of a old, ghostly mine dump on the forlorn outskirts of Soweto.
She knows little about radiation: she is concerned about the potential dangers of the dust that billow from Soweto’s mining belt.
“My house is covered in dust,” she says, wiping it off her sagging kitchen counter. “This dust is full of chemicals and it gets into our food, into our clothes.
“My grandson can’t breathe at night. We don’t sleep.”
Van Wyk, a researcher at the non-profit, faith-based Benchmarks Foundation, has spent the past three years leading a landmark study, which will be released later this year, to probe the impact of mining in Soweto, on the environment and communities living downwind and downstream.
The draft study notes how Snake Park resident and activist Tiny Dlamini has found several children “aged between nine and 11 with both mental and physical challenges.
“Researchers suspect either arsenate or lead poisoning, or exposure to r a d i o a c t iv i t y during pre gnancy of the mothers.
“We’ve found 30 children, just in the past few months – five in a crèche last week,” explains Van Wyk. “We’ve looked at studies in the Punjab and in Russia where researchers have established a link between cerebral palsy and radiation. There seems to be an abnormally high occurrence of cerebral palsy in this community.”
Dlamini, an indomitable figure who has long rallied against mining pollution in Snake Park, watches Neo – so tiny he looks half his age – crawl on an old carpet in his front yard.
“We find these children living adjacent to the tailings dams in Soweto. Here in Snake Park, they’re virtually on every street.”
A few streets away, Nobulawu Sitshaluza cradles her 6-year-old daughter, Sinovuyo, who also suffers from cerebral palsy. She can’t walk or talk, but her survival is a miracle. “The doctors gave her two months to live,” says Sitshaluza. “She’s special.
“I don’t know if it’s the mine dumps that made her like this, but she has a lot of chest problems. When, it’s dusty, she can’t breathe. Last year she was in Bara for a month.”
Van Wyk interjects: “The only way to prove that mining is the cause is to take a blood sample and a dust sample and to compare what is in the blood with what is in the mine waste. These mine tailings contain heavy metals such as arsenic, uranium, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury… you name it.”
He points to a recent study by Laurentian University, “Guide to Healthy Pregnancies in the Mining Workplace”, which warns how ionising radiation “especially in mines where uranium is found” – can lead to mental retardation and major malformations.
Mercury exposure, it advises, can cause brain damage, mental retardation and cerebral palsy, while cadmium exposure causes stillbirths and chromosomal aberrations. Arsenic can “cause spontaneous abortion” and lead to “stillbirths and neurologic damage”.
“I believe all women with unbor n children are at risk in Snake Park,” says Van Wyk.
His research in Snake Park has discovered that household health complaints are dominated by coughing, fever, asthma and TB. “Cumulative respiratory problems add up to 66.6% of health complaints in this community.”
Researchers administered questionnaires to 400 people living in Riverlea, Diepkloof, Meadowlands, Doornkop infor mal settlement in Snake Park and Davidsonville.
“Results show a negative relationship between operating and abandoned mines, and the health status of communities in the five areas,” tracing the “possible origins” to the impacts of mining along the easter n, northern and nor th-western rim of Soweto.
Dust levels d o wn s t r e a m are “constant threats” to health and well-being, particularly during the windy season, as is acid mine drainage, “whether in active operation, ownerless, derelict or abandoned mines.
And while laws and regulations exist, failure by previous and the current government to apply these “has caused the problem to spiral out of control”.
“We’re making detailed recommendations to the president and the government. We want responsible mining. If the population becomes ill, the government should take it seriously and do an epidemiological study,” says Van Wyk.
A proper epidemiological study, using blood tests, is needed to determine a direct correlation between tailings dust and respiratory problems.
That’s long overdue, agrees mining activist Mariette Liefferink.
“The asbestosis and silicosis catastrophes justify a high-confidence, independent epidemiological study to assess whether there’s a causal link between the anecdotal evidence of health impacts upon mining-affected communities and waste from gold and uranium mining.”