{"id":16512,"date":"2021-08-02T11:34:23","date_gmt":"2021-08-02T02:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/?p=16512"},"modified":"2021-08-03T14:43:14","modified_gmt":"2021-08-03T05:13:14","slug":"stillbirth-cancer-rates-at-uranium-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/2021\/08\/02\/stillbirth-cancer-rates-at-uranium-mine\/","title":{"rendered":"Stillbirth, cancer rates at uranium mine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finger-pointing and shaming of Top End Aboriginal people does nothing to explain documented increases in stillbirth and cancer rates<\/a> in the years since the 40-year Ranger uranium mine, particularly in light of the proposed Beetaloo Basin mine construction.<\/p>\n

Dr Rosalie Schultz, Adjunct Senior Lecturer at Flinders University\u2019s Centre for Remote Health in Alice Springs,\u00a0wrote in the Medical Journal of Australia<\/em> (MJA)<\/em><\/strong><\/a> that the Federal Government was still not consulting enough with Aboriginal community leaders.<\/p>\n

Work began on the Ranger mine in 1980, on land that was excised from the Kakadu National Park World Heritage site. Legislation vetoed Aboriginal rights and detrimental impacts on the people were anticipated. The mine was open until early 2021 when it closed as expected. It is now undergoing a 5-year rehabilitation process.<\/p>\n

Over the 40 years of operation, there were over 200 leaks, spills and other incidents documented.<\/p>\n

The Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, which represents the Mirarr people of the region, was concerned when the mine operators lodged a proposal to expand in 2014 despite elevated rates of stillbirth and cancer among the Aboriginal people in the region. This sparked a six-year investigation commissioned by the Northern Territory Chief Health Officer, which was publicly released in late 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The report confirmed what everyone knew.<\/p>\n

\u201cElevated stillbirth and cancer incidence rates among Aboriginal people living near the Ranger mine compared with other Aboriginal people in the Top End were confirmed. Stillbirth was over twice as common and cancer about 50% more common,\u201d Dr Schultz writes in the MJA Perspective article this month.<\/p>\n

However, the report failed to find a cause for the cluster.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Dr Rosalie Schultz, from the Centre for Remote Health, Alice Springs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dr Schultz wrote that the report into the cluster was detailed and involved a high level of expertise, but the view was also very narrow. The major area of investigation was an increase of stillbirths and cancers because of exposure to ionising radiation, which was considered the worst-case scenario.<\/p>\n

The report didn\u2019t find that ionising radiation was the cause and Dr Schultz told\u00a0InSight+<\/em>\u00a0that wasn\u2019t surprising.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at cluster investigations, they usually don\u2019t find a cause. They just exclude the narrow things they look at,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Instead, the report highlighted higher rates of tobacco and excessive alcohol consumption. They wrote: \u201cThis study did not find direct evidence that higher prevalence of smoking or alcohol consumption in members of the G-K [Gunbalanya-Kakadu] cohort contributed to their higher cancer incidence or fetal death rate.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Dr Schultz, this type of finger-pointing isn\u2019t helpful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the bigger picture cancer is a very complicated disease, and it\u2019s caused by lots of things together. In particular, it\u2019s caused by disempowerment, inequality, the causes of the causes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Those factors] were too complicated for [the investigation] to think about. It was much easier to go into the health record and tick off the people who smoke and say \u2018too many people smoke, let\u2019s blame them\u2019 and that\u2019s the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Schultz told MJA InSight+<\/em><\/a>\u00a0the report lacked consultation with local communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t talk to Aboriginal people, they didn\u2019t look at the history and they didn\u2019t look at the previous documents that explained how Aboriginal people were worried about (the project).<\/p>\n

\u201cThey needed to go further and ask \u2018why do you think there might be higher cancer rates, what can we do to investigate this, and even further than that, we\u2019ve got this problem, what can we do about it?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Of particular concern is the fear that it\u2019s all going to happen again. The federal government has invested millions into the fast-track of the\u00a0Beetaloo Basin mine exploration<\/a>, an area that is approximately 500 km south-east of Darwin.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s part of the Morrison government\u2019s \u201cgas-led recovery\u201d and\u00a0$50 million has already been handed out<\/a>\u00a0to help the gas industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are about to do the same thing again with mining for gas in the Beetaloo Basin,\u201d Dr Schultz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Aboriginal landowners don\u2019t want that mine. Not only are we not dealing with what we\u2019ve already done, we\u2019re creating the same thing again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aboriginal groups say their voices have been silenced. The Gudanji, Yanyuwa, Garrwa, Jingili, Mudburra and Alawa nations have been fighting against the Beetaloo Basin mine since its announcement earlier in 2021.<\/p>\n

They have published an\u00a0open letter<\/a>\u00a0to the Morrison government protesting fracking in the Northern Territory and have amassed over 38 000 signatures.<\/p>\n

A parliamentary inquiry is underway in Canberra<\/a>\u00a0with an interim report expected on 24 August 2021, and a final report in March 2022.<\/p>\n

Dr Schultz said until governments listen to First Nations people, nothing will change, particularly when they\u2019re continually experiencing such disempowerment.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are worried about their land and they\u2019re worried about the mine and then the government wags their finger and says they shouldn\u2019t drink and smoke so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

To close the gap in health care, Dr Schultz told\u00a0InSight+<\/em>\u00a0we need to understand the causes, not simply blame and shame people.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall we need better oversight and care for people and care for the country,\u201d Dr Schultz concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finger-pointing and shaming of Top End Aboriginal people does nothing to explain documented increases in stillbirth and cancer rates in the years since the 40-year Ranger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":502,"featured_media":16514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7560],"tags":[186,30877,30878,22809,30876],"class_list":["post-16512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-of-medicine-and-public-health","tag-centre-for-remote-health","tag-flinders-nt-sa","tag-kakadu-national-park-world-heritage","tag-mja","tag-ranger-uranium-mine"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/502"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/fit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}