ALKANE Resources has insisted that it takes the health and safety of its workforce and the community seriously after Friends of the Earth spokesman Dr Jim Green told Dubbo residents that that there was "no safe level of exposure to radiation".
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Dr Green, a participant in the Friends of the Earth Radioactive Exposure Tour, told the Daily Liberal on Wednesday morning of concern for the future employees of the company's $1 billion Dubbo Zirconia Project (DZP), approved by the independent Planning Assessment Commission in May.
"There's a long history of corporations saying workers are not exposed to radiation that's lower than level background radiation or comparable to background radiation, and it's therefore safe," he said.
"Both these statements are indefensible. "Firstly, the scientific consensus is there is no safe level of exposure to radiation and the second point is that doses are cumulative."
Alkane Resources, which has previously told the community of a "little uranium and thorium" in the Toongi deposit supporting the DZP, later called the activist's first piece of advice "incorrect".
A company spokeswoman pointed to an Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency statement indicating there was "no direct evidence of human health effects with doses of up to 10mSv".
"The radiation levels at the DZP are extremely low and the expected dose over a whole year at the closest residences to the mine will be 0.03mSv which is less than one chest x-ray or a flight from Sydney to London," she said.
The spokeswoman said radioactivity was " naturally all around us".
"It's in the bricks in our houses, in the food we eat and in the earth and rocks beneath our feet throughout the landscape of the Central West of NSW," she said.
"Rocks at the DZP already possess low levels of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM). These rocks have been weathering within the local environment for millions of years without causing any measurable harm."
The spokeswoman said Dr Green's advice suggested people "shouldn't travel in planes, play sport outside, get a tooth or chest x-ray or eat bananas and some nuts as all of these activities expose people to radiation".
She said to ensure the safety and health of workers, the public and the environment, Alkane would develop a radiation management plan as part of its overall safety management systems which included review by competent authority, monitoring and reporting of dose results.
