Opinion The radioactive risk society

Exposed to lethal doses of the substance,their hair fell out,and their skin darkened to nearly black,and one worker died days later. They may perhaps fit in the terminology of the Radiation Protection Rules of 2008,as an “off-site emergency”.

It is now revealed that the machine was auctioned off by one of the most reputed Indian centres of learning: Delhi University. From a lazy auction by the university,the machine found its way to Mayapuri,where every day,workers and scrap dealers search for the metaphoric diamond in the carbon. But what is it that shocks us the most? It is shocking that a centre of learning would publicly auction a machine that can legally only be disposed of by agencies approved by the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB). But what should shock us more is that there are no provisions at the municipal level to check this kind of pilferage,even as numbers of equipment with radioactive material grow.

Following the incident,the Delhi Pollution Control Committee did what any state pollution control board would do: absolutely nothing. This is because while the boards check for contamination and spills of all kinds of hazardous waste in the country,India’s Atomic Energy Act,1962 prevents them from including radioactive waste in that purview. But this is exactly the point. Radioactive waste and material is not about uranium mines,sealed nuclear energy production facilities,and national lab armours. It is also about laboratory equipment,which a university the size of Delhi University can easily procure,and cancer treatment units in hospitals. One of the most valuable lessons the Mayapuri incident has taught us then is that radioactive material is a part of our lives: our clinics,industries and our colleges. How then,can solutions not be a part of the same systems?

While the AERB certifies radioactive equipment,the ground monitoring of the same is nearly nonexistent. The Ministry of Environment and Forests,the custodian of checks against contamination of such horrors like lead and mercury,handles the Hazardous Waste (management,handling and transboundary movement) Rules. It also monitors the Biomedical Rules,and the Water and Air Act,the latter promising healthy environments for communities. But uncannily,it is as if radioactive waste does not exist in our lives: there is no mention of it anywhere in these rules.

While scrap workers,victims only because of their occupational compulsions,fight for their lives,radioactive waste needs to find mention and redress at more accessible levels. Though handling and decommissioning of the waste should only be done by atomic energy experts,our pollution board officials,at the very least,should be trained to identify and screen this material,just like customs personnel at ports. Biomedical waste rules need to describe and make public the disposal chains for radioactive equipment from hospitals.

Rosters of all civil radioactive equipment,and the lives and half-lives of the radioactive substances,should be made publicly accessible,especially in the place they are used. And perhaps for this reason,we have to let go of our blinkered view of radioactive material,and the services of other ministries,most logically that of environment and forests,need be brought in.

Garbage is a tough issue. Scrap markets exist at the fringes of our society — and just this summer,Mundka,another scrap market in Delhi,was set ablaze twice,with the police claiming sabotage by residents who didn’t want refuse near their homes. But the death of a single person,through disparate chains of official negligence,serves to show that he was not safe. And neither are we. The rules that govern our lives and the way authorities respond to radioactive waste need to include information,transparency and inter-governmental cooperation,as a very first step.  

neha.sinha@expressindia.com