Protection Against Radioactivity in Uranium Mines 1969 US Bureau of Mines

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• published: 08 Oct 2012
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This film from the United States Bureau of Mines presents general descriptions of the hazards of radon daughters in uranium mines, and outlines the environmental control, principles and procedures for mitigating the hazard. Scenes of underground mines show the origin and reason of the hazard, and various methods of ventilation are shown on how to correct the condition. Uranium mining occurred mostly in the southwestern United States and drew many Native Americans and others into work in the mines and mills. Despite a long and well-developed understanding, based on the European experience earlier in the century, that uranium mining led to high rates of lung cancer, few protections were provided by employers or government for US miners before 1962 and their adoption after that time was slow and incomplete. Some US officials and scientists advocated ventilation requirements in US mines as a proactive, preventative measure during the 1950s, on the basis of their knowledge of European experience. Duncan Holaday, an industrial hygienist with the PHS, has generally been recognized as the most prominent advocate for ventilation. He led the effort to obtain measurements of radon in the mines, and he used the data to argue forcefully within the government that ventilation would be effective and was feasible. His arguments achieved only limited success, as there was government resistance to requiring ventilation and his views were not made public at the time. The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an obstacle. In the late 1940s, controversy erupted in the New York Operations Office over the hazards from beryllium and uranium mining. The AEC wrote worker health requirements in contracts with companies that handled beryllium. After conflicting recommendations from staff, it chose not to establish such requirements for uranium. It claimed to lack legal authority, but it did not explain the legal difference between uranium and beryllium. The AEC did not lack knowledge: records of a January 25, 1951, internal meeting of AEC and PHS staff reveal that, on the basis of early measurements, they believed that radon was present in levels that would cause cancer and that ventilation could abate the hazard. Public acknowledgment of this problem was apparently squelched. For instance, Hueper, the scientist who wrote the 1942 review and who was then at the National Cancer Institute, was forbidden to speak in public about his concerns about the health hazard of radon in uranium mines. It is reported that he was even forbidden to travel west of the Mississippi, lest he say too much to the wrong people. The resulting high rates of illness among miners led in 1990 to passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. For more details, see the outstanding article, The History of Uranium Mining and the Navajo People, in the Sept 2002 American Journal of Public Health at http://www.ajph.org/cgi/reprint/92/9/1410 .