Student Safety Near Magnuson Park
I'll confess that this does not have to do with Seattle schools or its students. But with the lack of concern for ANY student exhibited here, you have to wonder if this kind of lax behavior could happen anywhere.
Rep. Gerry Pollet, a true friend to public education, was being interviewed by KIRO-tv about the clean-up of radioactive sewer lines near Magnuson. Look who comes walking along; students from the Waldorf High School.
How is this safe?
From Rep. Pollet:
Watch how students are protected by a chain link fence from radioactive contamination at Magnuson Park. Numerous groups of students walked within a couple of feet of the work crew in radiation protection tyvek suits as they dredge out radioactive contamination from a sewer line. Their protection against splashes and contamination is the chain link fence.
Students in this video are walking from NOAA road underpass towards Waldorf High School and Building 27 (indoor soccer).
We have asked WA Departments of Health and Ecology to take some common sense safety regulatory steps since they told the public at Tuesday night's public meeting that they are overseeing safety of the cleanup by the Navy.
Rep. Gerry Pollet, a true friend to public education, was being interviewed by KIRO-tv about the clean-up of radioactive sewer lines near Magnuson. Look who comes walking along; students from the Waldorf High School.
How is this safe?
From Rep. Pollet:
Watch how students are protected by a chain link fence from radioactive contamination at Magnuson Park. Numerous groups of students walked within a couple of feet of the work crew in radiation protection tyvek suits as they dredge out radioactive contamination from a sewer line. Their protection against splashes and contamination is the chain link fence.
Students in this video are walking from NOAA road underpass towards Waldorf High School and Building 27 (indoor soccer).
We have asked WA Departments of Health and Ecology to take some common sense safety regulatory steps since they told the public at Tuesday night's public meeting that they are overseeing safety of the cleanup by the Navy.
Comments
-flibbertigibbet
http://www.doh.wa.gov/CommunityandEnvironment/Radiation/MagnusonParkCleanupSeattle
http://www.doh.wa.gov/CommunityandEnvironment/Radiation/MagnusonParkCleanupSeattle/RadiationandYourHealth
To summarize, there was radium paint used on the site around WWII to make glow-in-the-dark dials for airplanes. There are detectable but extremely small levels of radiation from dust and shards of that paint.
Radiation is scary, but these levels are extremely small. I don't mean to trivialize it, but I'm more worried about lead and arsenic levels in the soil in some of our parks and schools than this.
You might want to ask SWS about the reports it reviewed before moving the high school there.
HP
WA DOH reports levels in the "Radiation and Your Health" for publicly accessible outside areas of Magnuson, and they are very low (order of magnitude less than the limits, and within the rang of background radiation).
I am a bit irritated, however, that the report does not detail the level of contamination in the non-publicly accessible areas that are now being cleaned up, which, presumably, are above the federal limits (because they are currently being cleaned up). I think government officials have to stop "managing information" in these days of the internet, and simply make all the information available, with context, and not just address questions obliquely.
zb
HP
"On Monday KING 5 reported that the Navy found 2 more sources of radioactive material in the soil at Magnuson Park."
http://www.seattledogspot.com/blog/dog-blog/post/navy-discloses-additional-radioactive-material-found-at-magnuson-park
Chris S
I've followed my representative's education votes and I can't recall a single instance when he didn't vote along the WEA party line.
--- swk
I can't imagine there is a parent, or school official, anywhere who would call this ok.
The workers, who the students are walking within 2 or 3 feet of, are wearing rad tyvek protection because the dredge and tools for the contaminated sewer line could splash. A chain link fence won't protect anyone. We asked that they simply move the fence out or put out cones to keep people maybe ten feet away. The WA Depts of Health and Ecology say they are overseeing safety measures for the Navy's contractors conducting the cleanup. But, no one apparently reviewed a work plan for this location. This is a separate issue, of course, than the long-term health risk from the residual contamination levels under the Navy's cleanup plan.
The Navy's cleanup level is based on no one using the Park to be exposed to soils more than 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. The Navy's cleanup levels are laxer than what EPA allows for Hanford or other Superfund sites with radioactive contamination. The cancer risk level to an adult male at 2 hours a day, 5 days a week from the Navy's cleanup level is 8 additional fatal cancers for every 10,000 adult males exposed. Women are 60% more susceptible to cancer from the same dose, and children 3-10 times more susceptible. And, children, including students, use the Park (remember about 200 kids live in the Park)and may be exposed for much more than 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. More info at www.hanfordcleanup.org under Magnsuon Park page, including small details that the Navy and WA DoH leave off their fact sheets: e.g., that the contamination levels in soil between Building 27 and Building 11 were over 300,000 cpm, or an equivalent radiation dose to someone who sat on the soil year around of 1,200 x-rays. Not that anyone sat there year-around, but these were VERY significant levels of contamination.
HP
http://rainiervalleypost.com/several-south-end-schools-locked-down-due-to-gunfire-again/
HCMom