Anniston Star
June 6, 2003

Speaker's Stand ... On incineration safety

By G. Anderson
Pink Zone resident
06-05-2003

My family and I have just returned from our "prepare now" session that we attended since we reside in the "pink zone." In my opinion it does not take a vast amount of intelligence to realize that the concept of being "safe" during any chemical incineration incident is only just that ... a concept. I did learn several things while I was there though and I will pass a few of them on to those of you who have not had the opportunity to attend.

If you have any pets and you value their existence then you need to purchase equipment needed for their protection on your own ... contact the EMA.

If you have family and friends who frequent your home on a regular basis that do not live in a "pink zone" then you must purchase, on your own, safety equipment for them, or go ahead and express your good-byes now. When I asked about friends of my children who regularly spend the night during the week and on every weekend I was told that they would be on their own, only the actual residents were provided with protection equipment.

And when my husband did not wish to place a protective hood on his head that countless people had previously tried on (by the way, they do take a small swipe and wipe off part of the hood in-between donors, but not every part of the hood was cleaned, he was told he would not receive a protective hood. So even though he does live in the pink zone and he did attend their program and he did watch the videos and he did listen to their presentation, he does NOT have a protective hood because he did not approve of what they considered an acceptable method of cleaning the hoods between users.

Also, these hoods are only good for four hours, and they should be kept in your safe room. So what if you are coming home from work or school, from an errand, what if you are anywhere but close to your so-called "safe" room? And I believe the instructions for preparing a safe room was to have it stocked with supplies for a MINIMUM of three days, not four hours.

I could go on and on here, but what I believe I will do is provide a Web site with a list of all the "reported" episodes and examples of some of the types of "UNLIKELY EVENTS" that occurred during the Tooele Incineration Program. This is the same type of incinerator we now have, and the same government attempting to run it.

This report on the Tooele incinerator is from the Chemical Weapons Working Group http://cwwg.org/shutdowns.html

If you read these actual reports of the problems and incidents of released chemicals and chemical exposures that DID occur, then you will have a better concept of just how "LIKELY" the unlikely event of an incident truly is.

I do understand that the disposal of these weapons is something that must occur for our present and future safety, I just disagree with the methods to be used and I disagree with the methods being used to offer what I consider to be an attempt to create a false sense of security to those in the zones near this incinerator.

So my suggestion is for each of you to use your intelligence to do whatever necessary to help devise a safe plan for yourself and your family. And do not completely rely on the information given to you from CSEPP.

G. Anderson, Pink Zone resident
Alexandria