Scots to consider serious question
Leith Davis was up to her eyeballs in poetry reading at a marathon reading of Robbie Burns’ best at a day-long celebration of the Scottish bard’s birthday today at SFU Vancouver. The director of SFU’s Centre for Scottish Studies has time after 12:30 p.m. to comment on a timely serious discussion underway in Scotland: Should Scotland be an independent country? Scotland’s leaders intend to put that question to their people in a referendum.

Best to line up interview with Davis through SFU’s Scott McLean at 604.505.5519 (cell), srmclean@sfu.ca

Debating Fukushima one year later
A conference being billed as the Day of Inquiry at SFU Vancouver will likely generate a lot of debate on March 11, the first anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear incident following an earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Tim Takaro, an SFU health scientist and expert on environmental and occupational health issues, will be among several experts sharing their views on the health impact of radiation exposure from the nuclear plant’s rupture. “This is the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl,” says Takaro. “Although information about Fukushima is largely absent from our news media, suggesting that the danger is over, we know that efforts to contain the four troubled reactors — at least three of which sustained explosions — continues.”

Some conference speakers believe information disclosure and radiation monitoring during and after the incident was and still is woefully lacking. Concerns have been raised regarding the impact of the Fukushima incident on B.C.

SFU chemist Kris Starosta, a nuclear structure and chemistry expert, presenting at the conference measurements he took of radioactivity levels in rainwater from Burnaby and seaweed from North Vancouver and Bamfield, isn’t concerned. “These measurements showed a year ago, and I believe they still accurately demonstrate, that the Fukushima incident did not and still has not significantly added to the radiation levels in British Columbia that are always in our environment.”  

Tim Takaro, 778.782.7186, ttakaro@sfu.ca
Kris Starosta, 778.782.8861, starosta@sfu.ca

Punishment fitting asbestos related crime
SFU health scientist Tim Takaro can also comment on the recent sentencing of a demolition contractor in B.C. for exposing young workers to asbestos and breaching a court order. “As a physician caring for asbestos patients, prevention of exposure is the key to reversing the current tide of death and disease,” says Takaro. This is in response to the contractor being given a two month rather than six month sentence, as requested by Worksafe BC. Takaro adds: “Meaningful sentences for employers who knowingly put workers at risk are a key tool in preventing these diseases. The same can be said for the governments of Canada and Quebec who promote the deadly product in India and other rapidly developing countries.”

Tim Takaro, 778.782.7186, ttakaro@sfu.ca