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Media Advisory November 5, 2007 Hunger Strike Against Uranium Exploration Enters Second Month Entering her second month without eating, Donna Dillman remains camped out at the side of the road just north of Sharbot Lake, ON. After discovering that 30,000 acres had been staked for uranium 20 km west of her home, her conviction that we can go a long time without food, but that clean drinking water is essential to all life encouraged her to begin a hunger strike on Thanksgiving Monday, October 8th. The 53 year-old mother and grandmother remains positive that the support for an end to uranium exploration and mining in Eastern Ontario is there and growing. Dillman is quick to point out that, “It has been established that there is no safe level of uranium,” and that, “History has shown that uranium mining has been an environmental and social disaster wherever it has been done.” Elliot Lake and the Serpent River system is a case in point. While the community has been rebuilt around an aging population and cheap housing, the river system is essentially dead from the uranium mining operations that took place decades ago. The miles of tailing piles require constant monitoring, ‘in perpetuity.’ Closer to home, an abandoned processing plant has polluted the Moira River, near Madoc, and will cost the Ontario taxpayers an expected 50 million dollars before cleanup is complete. And beyond the financial cost, there’s the increased cancers: of the lungs (the second highest cause after smoking); stomach; breast; liver; kidneys; pancreas; thyroid; gonads; lymph ones; bones and four types of leukemia; somatic cell damage; tissue damage; reproductive damage resulting in spontaneous abortions and mental handicaps; the community disruption; decreased property value; and the obvious environmental destruction and degradation. “This is not the legacy that I choose to leave for my descendents,” Dillman comments. “The Mississippi River system, upriver of Ottawa provides the drinking water for over one million people, including three of my four children and two of my three grandchildren. The prevailing winds will move air born particles around eastern Ontario, and beyond, affecting millions more. When I saw this happening, I realized that it was time for me to take a stand and living on the side of the road without eating is about as simple as life gets. It affords me time to write a daily blog, and to encourage people to write letters to Premier Dalton McGuinty asking him to rethink his nuclear energy plan in favour of the clean, safe and sustainable communities that he talks about. I’m also encouraging people to join in the ‘Bring Gramma Home’ campaign.” Both can be found at www.ccamu.ca Contact: CCAMU: Lynn Daniluk |
