MoS Jitendra Singh: No BARC scientist died of radiation cancer, fears unfounded
Minister of State for Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh, on Thursday appealed to MPs for their assistance in calming public concerns regarding radiation-caused cancers. He stated that a study conducted by the government on scientists at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) showed no fatalities resulting from radiation exposure.
“We did a study to find out how many scientists working at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre had died of radiation. You will be surprised to know that there were none. There were only two or three unnatural deaths happening and about one or two cancers which were not related to radiation,” Singh said during the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha.
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He said it was the responsibility of all MPs to allay these fears in people.
In some foreign countries, mining projects and nuclear reactors are now even being established in residential colonies or their close vicinity, Singh said.
The minister was referring to how a huge source of uranium in Meghalaya got stuck up and attempts to put up a plant at Rawalbhata have been delayed for two to three years due to fear among the people.
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All precautions are taken wherever mining is done or even reactors set up. But there are public apprehensions. Sometimes someone says there will now be an epidemic of cancers happening now, though we have been providing studies to the contrary,” he said.
