Unnecessary Radiation Exposures

Recent legislation by the Florida legislature fails to consider the cumulative effects of unnecessary radiation exposure prevalent in our society today. The public is being misled by contradictory statistics and rhetoric on radionuclide hazards. Safe doses for radiation are misleading. The cumulative health effects from all the daily individual safe doses of radiation exposure in humans are not known. Only a few radionuclide sources are currently regulated, leading the public to believe there is no real hazard.
 
House Bill 167: Former Phosphate Mining Lands protects landowners by making it difficult to sue over elevated levels of radiation on previously mined lands. This legislation is an attempt to make phosphate-mined-out lands economically feasible for sale to buyers without those buyers knowing the health risks associated with them.
 
Forgotten in this legislation is that there is no acceptable level of fatal cases of cancer or birth defects. Continuing to ignore the health problems created by the phosphate industry will not make them go away but will merely add to their multitude in the form of increased cancer and birth defects. The most definitive way to address potential radiation issues in land reclamation is to require that surface radiation levels not exceed background levels prior to mining. The technology exists to do this, but the political will does not.

Radioactive particles that settle on soil or plants may eventually be ingested. This is a serious problem in Central Florida because of the proximity of agricultural operations to mining and processing sites.

HB 167 is identical to last year’s bill, which failed because an amendment was offered that required landowners to identify their land as previously mined for phosphate.
 
Regardless of this legislation, landowners should be required to disclose that their property has been issued mining permits. If owners of these properties believe phosphate mining is safe, then they should have no objection to having it noted on their deeds that mining occurred. But we know it is not safe, lands mined for phosphate are known to contain toxic, radioactive soils contaminated with known carcinogens that pose serious health and safety hazards.
 
Besides increased levels of radiation on post-mined phosphate lands, other toxins are known to be present, such as Arsenic, Cadmium, Chromium, Lead, Mercury, and Nickel. 

Florida has been tolerant of the industry's slow pace of reclaiming land for decades; HB 167 will further delay the restoration of previously mined lands.
 
HB 167 encourages bad behavior by allowing phosphate companies to avoid their obligation to adequately reclaim lands, which would be a huge economic benefit to the industry and leave Florida taxpayers to finance the reclamation of these mined-out lands. Absent litigation, many of Florida's phosphate mined lands will never be restored.
 
Obviously, the industry remains far behind in carrying out its reclamation responsibilities; however, it continues to benefit from free groundwater, often subsidized electric rates, and the use of roads and ports subsidized by taxpayers.
 
Instead of further subsidizing the phosphate industry by making it harder to sue companies for contaminated land, Florida needs to establish emission standards for radioactive materials emitted by the industry. This industry continues to pollute our aquifers, our air, and our surface waters, and to increase our cancer rates.

Regulatory agencies are so handicapped by budget and personnel constraints that they cannot adequately monitor and enforce existing environmental regulations.

Due to political pressures, the State of Florida has not and will not pass adequate legislation to protect the public from harm. We cannot depend upon the state to regulate this; there is no reason to further subsidize the phosphate industry via economic incentives by passing HB 167.

Glenn Compton is the Chairman of ManaSota 88, a non-profit organization that has spent over 30 years fighting to protect the environment of Manatee and Sarasota counties.