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More Solutions and New Alliances: Summaries

Community Health: Alabama to South Africa and
A Life Cycle Analysis of Nuclear Energy
Richard Clapp, PhD, Boston University

The South Alabama community of Anniston was the location of a major plant producing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from the 1920s to the 1970s.  There was widespread contamination of property, streams, fish and animals, and humans near this plant over the years.  The Monsanto Company denied that there were human health problems associated with plant emissions.  This became one of the premier “environmental justice” cases in the U.S. and a series of lawsuits were tried and then combined into a comprehensive settlement in 2003.  Dr. Clapp served as an expert witness for plaintiffs in two of the lawsuits and will describe his role.  Clean-up of the contaminated areas is largely completed, but on-going surveillance of exposed residents is underway as a result of the Court settlement.

In South Africa, the legacy of the apartheid era is still evident in the many examples of environmental contamination, including a community near the South Durban oil refineries where residents are exposed to high levels of airborne pollutants.  Research completed in the past year indicates that the community is experiencing a high burden of illness, and steps have been taken to reduce emissions.  Community residents and researchers at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine are effectively collaborating to move the process forward within the framework of the new South African Constitution. International grant support and training activities have supported the researchers, whose work was presented at the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology meeting in 2005.

Both these case studies are examples of environmental contamination from the petrochemical industry affecting human health.  In addition, there is a proposal for a new nuclear reactor to be built in Cape Town, South Africa using the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor design.  This is viewed as a way to capitalize on South Africa’s nuclear expertise, also left over from the apartheid era, and to develop an inherently safe reactor design for use in countries whose energy needs are rapidly developing without increasing their carbon dioxide output.  The politics and economics of this choice will be presented.