Australia: Update: No man-made toxins found by authorities (Road workers sick amid highway radiation scare; exclusion zone created)

[Emily]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-18/radioactive-discovery-halts-pacific-hwy-upgrade/3957168/?site=illawarra

Workers sick amid highway radiation scare

Updated April 18, 2012 13:54:54
Pacific Highway construction site where suspected nuclear material was uncovered:
Roads and Maritime Services has set up an exclusion zone around the site.

Road workers were sent for medical treatment after vomiting when suspected nuclear material was unearthed during work on an upgrade to the Pacific Highway in New South Wales.

The materials were buried near Laurieton, south of Port Macquarie, after a truck carrying radioactive elements including caesium and americium crashed in 1980.

The isotopes were being taken from Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor to Brisbane from where it was to be shipped to the United States.
[snip]
John Mackay, a doctor who treated police who became ill at the crash site in 1980, says he is convinced they suffered radiation poisoning.

Dr Mackay says the officers handled radioactive mater that was onboard the truck.

"The police were instructed by Lucas Heights to approach the radioactive containers, of which there were several, but in particular the caesium-137 containers and put their arms inside of it to check if the inside radioisotope had been broken," he said.

"Within seconds or minutes the men felt intensely sick."

 

[Emily]

Re: Australia: Road workers sick amid highway radiation scare; exclusion zone created

Re: Australia: Road workers sick amid highway radiation scare; exclusion zone created

Soil, not radiation, made workers illl

Soil, not radiation, made workers ill

BEN CUBBY April 20, 2012

THE FIVE road workers who fell ill after digging up an unknown substance at the edge of the Pacific Highway near Port Macquarie were apparently not affected by radiation, or by toxic chemicals, but by a naturally-occurring type of soil.

Fears that the road crew had unearthed remnants of a 1980 truck crash in which barrels of radioactive material and bags of the insecticide DDT were spilt, appear to have been unfounded.

Instead, tests undertaken by specialists working with Roads and Maritime NSW showed the presence of acid sulphate soil, which is common in the area and can produce gas and acid....

http://www.portnews.com.au/news/local/news/general/highway-fallout-radioactive-contamination-ruled-out/2527990.aspx

Highway fallout: Radioactive contamination ruled out
20 Apr, 2012 04:00 AM
A RADIOACTIVE scare on the Pacific Highway that sent alarm bells ringing across the nation has been extinguished.

[snip]

The tested material was positive for ?acid sulphate soil potential?.

Further investigation will determine what the odour given off by the orange clay when it oxidises in air may be.

RMS and contractor BMD Contractors created an exclusion zone around a 1980 fatal crash site where a semi-trailer carrying drums radioactive material, Chinese food including lychees and the now banned pesticide DDT. rolled and spilled its load over the road...