Cox’s Bazar Heavy Mineral Deposits
High-level radioactivity found in water, soil
Researchers have found a high level of radioactivity in the soil, vegetables and drinking water extracted from permanent deposits of heavy minerals in areas around Cox’s Bazar.
The level of radium, thorium and uranium found in the food chain in the area pose potential health risks to the surrounding inhabitants, according to the experts, although short-term exposure to such radioactivity could do no harm to humans.
Plants and animals but non-humans are also vulnerable to a chronic exposure to such radiation dose.
Research undertaken in the past three years by hydrologist Ashraf Ali Seddique of the petroleum and mining department in Jessore Science and Technology University has found that the level of uranium and thorium in the groundwater in Cox’s Bazar town and adjacent areas are at a high level, having leached from the deposits of the heavy mineral.
Seddique found 4 microgram/litre of uranium in samples collected 20 to 30 feet below the ground, which is double the WHO acceptable standard for groundwater.
And in samples collected 200 and 250 feet below the ground, Seddique also found 1.6 microgram/litre of thorium, a chemical for which WHO has not set any acceptable limits.
He also found 16 per cent concentration of uranium and thorium in the samples of monazite and zircon collected from the deposits at Kalatali in Cox’s Bazar.
‘I will disclose details of my findings on the impact of radioactivity on the public and environment at a press conference next month,’ Seddique through e-mail told New Age from Japan, where he was writing the final report.
Recently published studies have also found a high level of radioactivity in the soil.
In the May 2013 edition of the Oxford Journal, a paper published by environmental scientist Mahfuza Sharifa Sultana of the department of environmental science
in Jahangirnagar University along with three other local researchers found the level of radium, uranium and thorium in the soil at palaeo beach at Teknaf 12 times the standard set by the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation.
‘The higher level of radioactivity than the worldwide acceptable limit in the soil is very much harmful to the environment,’ Mahfuza told New Age.
She is also about to publish research undertaken on the radioactivity levels in vegetables at Tulatoli of Teknaf in her latest study on the transfer factor of the radionuclide from soil to plant.
‘The research has found that the average value of the radium, thorium and uranium levels in vegetables was higher than the acceptable UNSCEAC standard. The study is about to be published in a scientific journal published by Elsevier,’ she added.
These findings will increase concern about the effect of heavy minerals on health which at low doses can cause cancer, kidney damage and birth defects to humans as well as effect other animal life.
Public health expert ABM Faroque of the pharmaceutical technology department in Dhaka University said, ‘There should not be a permitted level of radioactive uranium and thorium in drinking water and food as the intake of any contaminated water such as this creates the risk of cancer in human body… so it should be taken seriously by the government.’
The presence of heavy minerals and the risk of radioactivity have been known about since the discovery by the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission of 17 permanent mineral sand deposits containing valuable industrial heavy minerals in the beaches and offshore islands in the south-eastern coastal belt of Bangladesh including Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar, Maheshkhali, Kutubdia and Matarbari islands.
BAEC documents that New Age has seen show that on some locations in Cox’s Bazar such as Kalatali, readings of 30-50 millisievert radiation a year have been observed in the air, which is over 10 times the permissible exposure limit for members of the public, which is 3.5 millisievert a year, and as much as double the permitted level for workers which is 20 millisievert a year.
‘Large doses of ionising radiation for longer period, higher than ordinary background levels of 2.5 millisievert a year, can cause a measurable increase in cancer,’ Eunuse Akon, former chief geologist and director of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, told New Age.
BAEC officials at its Beach Sand Mineral Exploitation Centre in Cox’s Bazar use a thermoluminescent dosimeter, known as TLD badge, to monitor the yearly dose of radiation they face. ‘After a certain limit of radiation is monitored, officials are transferred to another part of the country,’ an official of the plant told New Age.
But the BAEC has reportedly kept other government departments — including the civil aviation and tourism ministry, local administration, public health department and department of environment — in the dark about the possible risks.
As a result, in ignorance of the risks, an airport, a BGB camp and hundreds of houses, hotels, and business establishments, including hatcheries, have been built on some of the 17 ‘high-grade’ mineral sand deposits discovered in the 100-kilometre stretch of the beach creating a potential public health disaster. A stadium is also being built in the area.
M Ruhul Amin, deputy commissioner of Cox’s Bazar, told New Age that he had no idea about the possible high level of radiation. ‘We do not know anything about radioactive minerals in Cox’s Bazar in order to warn the public of the possible danger of living on the deposits.’
Both M Ibrahim Khalil, in-charge of hotel-motel cell of the civil aviation and tourism ministry, and M Zafar Alam, director of the environment department in Chitagong, also told New Age that they had not been informed of the heavy mineral deposits in Cox’s Bazar.
Aliya Begum, head of the health physics department at the BAEC, admitted that its own employees were being treated differently from the local people.
‘Local people living and working in the area are not monitored at all,’ she said.
The BAEC justified its inaction by pointing out that people do not live in the most hazardous areas.
‘People do not go near the deposits at Kalatali where radiation level is high,’ Aliya Begum said. ‘And in other deposits, the radiation level is not at such an alarming rate that it is necessary to alert people. We do not want to cause unwanted panic.’
The BAEC is also failing to comply with its legal obligations under the Nuclear Safety and Radiation Control Act 1993, which requires adherence to the International Atomic Energy Agency Regulations.
IAEA safety regulations require that substances that emit radiation at hazardous levels should be regulated.
But unlike in areas of India (Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Orissa) which have similar deposits, the BAEC has not taken any step to warn workers, residents or tourists of the radiation by installing any radiation warning symbols in the area and has not demarcated the hazardous zones.
IAEA regulations also require the monitoring of drinking water, fish, crops and vegetables to determine the total intake of radiation by those living or working in the area.
There are no systematic cancer records allowing national comparisons but, according to the superintending doctor of Cox’s Bazar General Hospital, Ajay Ghosh, the rate of stomach and lung cancer was high in Cox’s Bazar.
‘In records of the past six months, 23 out of 60 cancer patients had been diagnosed with stomach cancer. Most of these patients are from offshore islands, especially from Maheshkhali,’ he said.
According to BAEC officials, people live on the radioactive contaminated mineral deposits in Maheshkhali Island.
The BAEC chairman, ASM Firoz, said that they would submit a proposal to the government about extracting the heavy mineral deposits.
-With New Age input
