Marvin’s Garden: A Monopoly Draw on Your Taxes… and Health

Go directly to Jail, Do not pass Go.

This is the second of a two-part series. The first part is available here.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says it does not have statutory authority to regulate naturally occurring radioactive material. It gestures to EPA. EPA points a finger to OSHA. OSHA nods in the direction of NRC. So the matter is mainly left to the states, none of which monitor oil-field, refinery, transportation, pipeline, or gas station workers for radiation exposure.

The levels of radium in Louisiana oil pipes had registered as much as 20,000 times the limits set by the EPA for topsoil at uranium-mill waste sites. Templet found that workers who were cleaning oil-field piping were being coated in radioactive dust and breathing it in. One man they tested had radioactivity all over his clothes, his car, his front steps, and even on his newborn baby. The industry was also spewing waste into coastal waterways, and radioactivity was shown to accumulate in oysters. Pipes still laden with radioactivity were donated by the industry and reused to build community playgrounds. Templet sent inspectors with Geiger counters across southern Louisiana. One witnessed a kid sitting on a fence made from piping so radioactive they were set to receive a full year’s…