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April 14, 1997 <br /> Aaron Chung <br /> County Council 4th District <br /> Dear Mr. Chung, <br /> I wanted to attend the Finance Committee meeting on April 24th and testify <br /> about my concerns regarding county funding of an irradiation facility, but <br /> I will be on the mainland during that week, so I am submitting this letter <br /> to be read into public testimony. <br /> TESTIMONY <br /> I Jesse Wolf Dawn of 489 Ocean View Drive, Hilo, am strongly against <br /> any county funding or county approval of an irradiation facility on the <br /> Big Island because: <br /> 1. Despite numerous claims of irradiation "safety", evidence shows that the <br /> irradiation industry is rife with dangerous incidents of leakage. In <br /> fact, due to a radiation leakage at the Radiation Sterilizers facility in <br /> Decatur, Georgia, radiation contamination was found throughout the facility <br /> and in plant workers homes and cars (as reported in the February 1997 issue <br /> of Environment Hawaii), whereby clean-up costs exceeded $47 million. Such <br /> inherent risks and costs are something that this county cannot afford. <br /> 2. The fact that this island is inherently prone to earthquakes, tsunamis <br /> and volcanic eruptions, makes radiation leakage dangers even more probable. <br /> 3. $2 million spent on such a risky business, while basic human needs are <br /> unmet, is a form of corporate welfare that this island will not publically <br /> accept. <br /> 4. If put here, irradiation, already banned in Japan, will severely damage <br /> international confidence in Big Island's fruit produce. <br /> 5. Irradiation substitutes a dangerous process for clean processing altern- <br /> natives such as vapor heat, cold treatment, canning, freezing or drying. <br /> 6. Irradiation not only destroys the vitamins in fruit, which is why people <br /> buy fruit in the first places, but inadequate studies of the process <br /> fail to prove that changing the molecular structure of fruit through <br /> irradiation does not cause cancer through intake of damaged chromosomes. <br /> 7. Such a facility will make the Sig Isle an accomplice to the deadly <br /> nuclear industry, whose disposal of toxic wastes, an inherent part of <br /> the irradiation industry, is tantamount to scandal and enormous liability. <br /> N Q U <br /> <br /> l N ~~Q <br /> ~.I ~ J ~/II/ ~ rC./ <br /> r u-~ - ~ i <br /> I~ ~ OZ <br /> H'lle i(o. FNV~C/P <br /> Itef. To: FC <br /> ztet. llate_APR- <br /> 1_~~ <br /> <br />