Thoothukudi cancers resulting from uranium internal exposure

Thoothukudi annual excess fatal cancers and the uranium in the imported copper ore concentrate.

© 2018 Ramaswami Ashok Kumar

By Ramaswami Ashok Kumar, B.E., M.E., Negentropist, Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal, 299, Tardeo Road, Nana Chowk, Mumbai-400007.
Revised 18 June 2018.Updated July 5, 2018.

Abstract: The cancers of one to two per year over the seventy year life time of the individuals in each family in Thoothukudi, analysis following ECRR 2010 Recommendations of the European Committee on Radiation Risk shows, are caused by uranium internal exposure.

0. Introduction
0.1 Extract from Reference 4 gives the background:

LAST JANUARY(2011), Australia declined India’s request for uranium supply citing non-proliferation concerns. But in the 20 months ending September 2010, Australia had supplied at least 2.2 tonnes of uranium to India as part of copper concentrates it exported to Sterlite Industries’ controversial copper smelter in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu. Tainted with up to 60 parts per million of uranium, these concentrates came with a contamination discount for the buyer. Sterlite saved more than $1.15 million by opting to import radioactive ore. The company has been importing concentrate since 1995.

These imports and handling of uranium- tainted concentrates, and the subsequent emissions from the copper smelter to air, water and land are not on the radar of Indian regulatory agencies. The exports don’t seem to have Australia’s authorisation either. In 2007, Australian miner BHP Billiton sought the government’s permission to export uranium-tainted copper concentrates to China. No such permission seems to have been sought for exports to India.

1.0 The analysis.

Reference 1 says:

About 80% of the uranium is recovered in conventional acid leach of the flotation tailings from copper recovery. Most of the remaining 20% is from acid leach of the copper concentrate, but that concentrate then still contains up to 0.15% uranium. Hence the copper must be smelted at site, since selling it to overseas smelters would create both processing and safeguards complications for the smelter operator. This could change as part of a major envisaged expansion.

Let us use the figure of 0.15% uranium content in imported copper ore concentrate at Thoothukudi.

1.1 Copper smelting using imported copper concentrates.

Let us determine the concentration of uranium in the copper ore concentrate.

At 0.15% uranium content, the uranium content works out to 1.5 kg per 1000 kg of ore concentrate.

1.36 million tons of copper concentrate annually  to produce 400000 T of copper per year, means a uranium content of 2040000 kg 
Uranium's 238 and daughters per year: Taking this to be the uranium content/y and for ten years the uranium accumulated is 20400000 Kg. At 37000 Bq/g as the activity of uranium 238 and daughters, the total activity of the uranium content is 7.55E+14 Bq. Applying the precautionary principle partition this activity to 1/3 particles, 1/3 ingestion and 1/3 inhalation. This 1/3 part of Uranium activity is 2.516E+14 Bq.

The dose coeffiicients converting the activities to radiation internal dose due to uranium are taken from reference 2.

Table 1 Dose coefficients for uranium in copper ore concentrate.

                                  Half Life,years    k(0-1),Sv/Bq*  k(1-14),Sv/Bq   k(Adult),Sv/Bq

U-238 inhalation	4.5 E+9	2.50E-03	1.20E-03	8.40E-04
U-238 m particle	4.5 E+9	2.50E-02	1.20E-02	8.40E-03
U-238 ingestion	4.5 E+9	2.50E-04	1.20E-04	8.40E-05

*Multiply dose coefficients by 10 for foetus.

Using these dose coefficients, a table of SOURCE person-Sieverts for the various population categories of Thoothukudi is constructed for the population data for the year 2011 for which census data is available:

Table 2: Total Person-Sieverts source input data for Estimation of  Fatal cancers in age groups that would be caused if the entire uranium in the copper concentrate were internalised by the Thoothukudi population of humans only.

(1)Age y, (2) Population, (3) Person-Sieverts dose Source Input proportional to the           population in each age category over the 70 year life time of the individuals

0-1	28527.87	1.25E+12
1-6	184401		3.53099E+11
Adults	1537247			2.06051E+12
Total	1750176				3.66546E+12

1.2 This is a very revealing Table.Fatal  Cancer risk is 0.1/Sv(Reference 2).  It shows that infants and children would be wiped out in Thoothukudi, even if the uranium internal exposure to the population were four orders of magnitude less than the source uranium content dose. There would be one to two fatal cancers per year in each individual household in Thoothukudi caused by internal uranium exposure even at a level of four orders of magnitude less than the source radiation level of uranium, over the 70 year lifetime of the individuals. Uranium has really infinite biological effectiveness. This consideration must prevail in preventing uranium  pollution and internal exposure due to this source if Thoothukudi should survive.

The results are collected in Table 3:

 

See

http://cdn.intechweb.org/pdfs/26773.pdf

Moreover,  uranium  and  phosphate  have a strong chemical affinity  for  each  other.  Thus as 

the DNA and mitochondria are loaded with phosphate, uranium may be considered a DNA and mitochondria deep penetration bomb attacking on fundamental cellular levels.

Whether it is the ICRP Regulations or its  Regulations issued by its sister organisations, the fatal cancers applying ECRR 2010 Regulations overwhelmingly show the true mass murders perpetrated by Uranium even when compared with the fatal cancers due to radon in all the groundwaters(Tables 3 and 4).


1.3 This result is confirmed by the following ground observations showing the grossly invalid ICRP Recommendations and similar industry serving Regulations leaving lives unprotected against the dangers posed by Uranium  like the Fact Sheet quoted as Source 2 in Table 3:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISASMELT

1.4 Sterlite Industries (India) Limited(See Google Earth views below.

1.4.1 Sterlite Industries ("Sterlite"), now a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources plc ("Vedanta"), built a copper smelter in Tuticorin using an ISASMELT furnace and Peirce-Smith converters. The smelter was commissioned in 1996[1] and was designed to produce 60,000 t/y of copper (450,000 t/y of copper concentrate),[41] but by increasing the oxygen content of the lance air and making modifications to other equipment, the ISASMELT furnace feed rate was increased to the point where the smelter was producing 180,000 t/y of copper.[10]

1.4.2 Sterlite commissioned a new ISASMELT furnace in May 2005[44] that was designed to treat 1.3 million t/y of copper concentrate,[41] and the smelter’s production capacity was expanded to 300,000 t/y of copper.[10] The new plant reached its design capacity, measured over a three-month period, six months after it started treating its first feed.[44] Vedanta’s website states that the new ISASMELT furnace was successfully ramped up "in a record period of 45 days".[45]

1.4.3 Since then Sterlite has decided to further expand its copper production by installing a third ISASMELT smelter and new refinery using IsaKidd technology.[46] The new smelter will have a design capacity of 1.36 million t/y of copper concentrate (containing 400,000 t/y of copper), processed through a single ISASMELT furnace.[47]

1.4.4 Simultaneously Greenstar Fertlizers at Thoothukudi plans to double its capacity of Phosphoric acid plant to produce Phosphatic Fertilizer. It will input the phosphoric acid containing almost the same uranium content as the Sterlite Copper unit’s copper concentrate imported input. It will pipe the phosphoric acid to the solvent extraction plant( of national importance as claimed by the proposal ) planned within the Heavy Water Plant in Thoothukudi so that the uranium (present in the mixture called Rare Material Complex II) is extracted at the rate of almost exactly the amount present in the Sterlite Copper plant’s copper concentrate input to produce some 80-90 Tons of uranium extract per year to be sent to DAE units elsewhere for further processing of uranium for use by the government. See Reference 5.

 

The imagery date is as given in the photo above and is not 07/29/2017 as captioned by an inserted label.

 1.5 This report below brings out the fear born out of experiential wisdom of the citizens: See

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/how-copper-came-a-cropper/article24003304.ece

J. Veerapandi, a postgraduate in chemistry, and a local, claims: “These villages situated close to Sterlite Copper have been witnessing deaths caused by cancer and respiratory diseases, birth of children with congenital disorders and increased instances of miscarriage. The villagers suspect that these are caused by liquid and gaseous effluents discharged from the copper-manufacturing unit. And this anxiety, fear and anger brought the people together against the mega project.”

1.5.1

http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-nadu/2018/may/17/sc-sends-notice-to-thoothukudi-vedanta-sterlite-copper-for-slag-dumping-1815774.html
See also
 https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/slag-dumping-at-riverbank-from-sterlite-plant-worsened-2015-floods/articleshow/63982694.cms
See the locations of the Plant, the slag dumping area at Pudukottai here:

What is the uranium analysis of the slag over time?

1.5.2  The input/output analysis for uranium content must be published, namely it's time series values for all inputs and outputs.
Regarding the latest developments, I once again emphasize the need for confirmed measurements of uranium content while clearing the premises of all materials:

https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/sterlite-vs-sterlite-how-copper-smelter-has-left-its-own-employees-divided-82475

Re
Thoothukudi the authorities seem to have applied the precautionary principle to mitigate adverse ongoing effects. In this connection, the very serious shortcomings revealed by my analysis below must be addressed asap so that the reparations do not land the concerned govts into permanent penury:
https://livingnormally.blogspot.com/2018/06/thoothukudi-cancers-resulting-from.html?m=1
See
https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/99-cent-chemicals-cleared-sterlite-plant-says-thoothukudi-administration-85701
Re the above news about the 99 percent removal of materials, it is absolutely essential that evidence regarding all, ALL the materials,namely, the phosphoric acid, the rock phosphate, the gypsum, the phoshogypsum,the copper concentrate and others regarding their uranium content is accurately measured and confirmed by independent authorities. Justice must be ensured for all life for all time.
See also the despicable practice of such slag dumping at
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/monsanto-roundup-production-superfund-sites-radioactive
If pasting the URL 404 appears which did in my effort, search for the tags and you will get the article.

1.6 One or two cancer victims in each family… See

https://thewire.in/environment/in-thoothukudi-the-choice-before-people-was-to-die-of-cancer-or-bullets

1.6.1 Cancer deaths

“There is a unique cancer spreading in Thoothukudi, the cancer capital of Tamil Nadu, by its own official records. We will come to know about the disease only 30 days earlier. And in 30 days, we will die. Every family in Thoothukudi, especially a village named Pattaramapetti, has at least one or two cancer victims,” Kittu said, adding that there is even a Kerala Transport bus that shuttles between Thoothukudi and Thiruvananthapuram, which we call the ‘Cancer Bus’, as most of the passengers are cancer patients going to Kerala for treatment.

1.7 A similar brutal neo-colonial tragedy is the ongoing conflict courtesy the wild rakshasas of China and Myanmar at the giant Letpadaung copper mine and smelter in Myanmar:See
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letpadaung_Copper_Mine

More details in Ref 6. An extract:"
The Letpadaung copper mine is part of the Monywa copper project, which also contains the Sabetaung and Kyisintaung (S&K) copper mines, as well as the Moe Gyo sulphuric acid factory. Letpadaung is the largest of the Monywa deposits and accounts for 75% of the total copper reserves. The other deposits have been developed under the S&M mine [1,2,3]. For the Letpadaung mine, production quantity is expected to reach 100,000 tons of cathode copper/year [1]. First copper production was announced in May 2016 [3]. 

The Google Earth View of the Letpadaung Copper Mine extracted on 3 August 2018:

1.8 The people must treat such development with the highest contempt and democratically prevent wild people from proceeding on this suicidal modern ways and get back to normal civilization which has infinite efficiency by adopting the method of production, consumption and return.
See https://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/sterlite-impasse-irks-concentrate-sellers/article24609699.ece?homepage=true

What is the equation between 1.35 million tons of copper concentrate containing uranium imported per year for the smelter at Thoothukudi and the one to two fatal cancers per year per household due to uranium internal exposure in Thoothukudi?

1.9 Unnecessary sacrifices
I reemphasize the moorkhapaddhati:

The specialist approaches to meet our needs is suicidal. Indeed as Shri Shankar Sharma points out repeatedly Thoothukudi shutdown matters little and our needs must be optimised to avoid such huge copper consumption for meeting our energy needs. Modi govt and the states will be do well to ruminate over the Sharma essay and kick start Niti Aayog to implement the recommendation in it's entirety and avoid more Thoothukudis while giving due reparations to the Thoothukudi living beings and others similarly affected by modern civilization:
https://countercurrents.org/2018/07/26/credible-electricity-demand-projection-for-year-2027-and-beyond 

2.0 References

1. http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-a-f/australia.aspx

2. ECRR 2010 Recommendations of the European Committee on Radiation Risk : The Health Effects of Exposure to Low Doses of Ionizing Radiation:  Regulators’ Edition: Brussels 2010. Table A1.

3. Thoothukudi demographic data including vital statistics:

 https://www.census2011.co.in/census/district/49-thoothukkudi.html

http://www.thoothukudi.tn.nic.in/files/tutshb2011-2012.pdf


4. N. Jayaraman. 2011. A silent horror in our midst. Tehelka.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:xu-QEJJ4Hp4J:www.tehelka.com/2011/04/a-silent-horror-in-our-midst/+&cd=16&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in&client=firefox-b

5. http://environmentclearance.nic.in/writereaddata/FormB/EC/EIA_EMP/22032018XYZSZTXFFinalEIAReport-compressed.pdf
6.  Monywa Letpadaung copper mine, Sagaing, Myanmar. March 20, 2018.
 https://ejatlas.org/conflict/monywa-letpadaung-copper-mine-sangaing