From: jad@ckuxb.att.com (John A Dinardo)
Subject: Part 2, RADIOACTIVE MEAT, MILK & PRODUCE: Supermarkets Selling Leukemia
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Keywords: radioactive meat, milk & produce: supermarkets selling leukemia
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 22:50:54 GMT

      The following article is from IN THESE TIMES,
      August 19 - September 1, 1987.  Subscriptions and back issues
      can be ordered by calling (312) 772-0100,

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
                          (continuation)
When the NRC approved Kerr-McGee's fertilizer program, it also
discussed the environmental impact of the seventeen toxic and heavy
metals found in the fertilizer. It said that Kerr-McGee's tests
show that "in some cases" the metals are found in concentrations
that exceed the National Academy of Science's recommended maximum
limits for irrigation water. The only one of those unspecified
elements that the NRC mentions, and seems repeatedly concerned
about, is molybdenum. According to Kerr-McGee-supplied figures, the
raffinate it sprayed in 1982 contained one hundred and seventy-eight
thousand percent more molybdenum than the maximum allowable
concentration for irrigation water. 

But Kerr-McGee's Bridges claims that the raffinate fertilizer is
harmless because 

   "the heavy metals and the radionuclides have been removed ....
    It is really not a waste product; it is a by-product."

She says that the "only difference" between a commercial fertilizer
and Kerr-McGee's "ammonium nitrate fertilizer" is that the latter
is produced by a "facility that is licensed by the NRC."

Kerr-McGee is also the only "farmer" who spreads fertilizer with
leased tank trucks whose doors read "Chemical Waste Disposal Division."

In giving its go-ahead to the fertilizer program, the NRC set
limits on how much raffinate could be applied to the soil. But
observers living near Kerr-McGee's raffinate-sprayed fields
suspect that the company spreads more fertilizer than allowed.

A RADIOACTIVE EXPLOSION: 
One of those who thinks that Kerr-McGee is over-dumping is Ed
Lammers, director of the Carlise Area Residents Association, a
group of people who live in the eighty-two houses within a two-mile
radius of the facility. Eighty-eight members of the association are
currently suing Kerr-McGee. On January 4, 1986, a uranium
hexafluoride cylinder exploded in the plant, leaving one worker
dead and sending the thirty-two remaining plant workers and sixty
Kerr-McGee 45 minutes to report to local emergency officials,
eventually closed Interstate 40. 

Lammers doesn't trust the NRC reports on how much Kerr-McGee is
dumping. And he and Deer-in-Water also doubt the veracity of the
laboratory tests done at Kerr-McGee Technical Center in Oklahoma
City that show that the raffinate is harmless. 

Last May, Deer-in-Water suggested to the NRC that
raffinate-fertilized plants be analyzed at someplace other than an
in-house laboratory. The NRC responded saying that Kerr-McGee's
environmental impact tests are valid because the company's
vegetation samples "are dried and properly prepared for analysis by
Oklahoma State University."

But Deer-in-Water and Lammers are as suspicious of Oklahoma State
University's testing program as they are of Kerr-McGee's. Says
Lammers:

   "Kerr-McGee hires their experts. Dr. Billy Tucker, an agronomist
    at Oklahoma State University, is their primary source on all 
    agricultural research. He has operated on Kerr-McGee research
    grants for years."

Kerr-McGee spokeswoman Bridges describes Tucker as "a consultant to
the fertilizer program." In response to charges of conflict of
interest, Tucker says:

   "The only way to overcome that criticism is if the Government
    would take over the expense of testing themselves."
As to the validity of his tests, he says:
    the fertilizer "has been tested since 1973. If it hasn't been 
    adequately tested, then I don't know how to adequately test it."

 [JD: Tucker is conveying the impression that the fertilizer is being
      adequately tested. But he is using carefully chosen words to state,  
      with semantical strictness, just the opposite -- that he is NOT   
      sure that he knows how to adequately test the fertilizer.  
      This semantically honest statement technically clears his 
      implied meaning of any dishonest inferences.]

Pat Costner, the Deputy Director of Greenpeace's National Toxics
Campaign and a former industrial chemist for Shell, began
investigating Kerr-McGee's operations in 1984 when she worked for
the National Water Center of Eureka Springs, Arkansas. She says:

   "Kerr-McGee's experimental program for proving the harmlessness
    of their raffinate-spraying program is a joke. It is profoundly
    inadequate. I've looked at NRC and Kerr-McGee data, and it is 
    so disparate and it disagrees with itself so frequently that it
    doesn't prove anything."
                           (to be continued)
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

    If you agree that American consumers have a right to know what they
    may be eating and drinking, please help to disseminate this story
    by posting it to other bulletin boards and by posting hardcopies
    in public places, both on and off campus.
    If you need Part 1, please contact me by e-mail.

         John DiNardo


Xref: sparky misc.activism.progressive:7517 alt.activism:17629 talk.environment:4269