Australia 'uranium' dust concerns

Environmentalists have raised concerns that another giant dust storm blowing its way across eastern Australia may contain radioactive particles. It is argued that sediment whipped up from Australia's centre may be laced with material from a uranium mine. Scientists have played down concerns, saying there is little to worry about. Last Wednesday Sydney and Brisbane bore witness to their biggest dust storm in 70 years. Both were shrouded in red dust blown in from the desert outback. The massive clouds of dust that choked heavily populated parts of Australia have caused problems for people with asthma, as well as those with heart and lung conditions. "I thought the whole city was on fire, it was just so red" But some environmental campaigners believe that the dry, metallic-tasting sediment could threaten the health of millions of other Australians. David Bradbury, a renowned filmmaker and activist, claims the haze that engulfed some of the country's biggest cities in the past week contains radioactive grains - or tailings - carried on gale force winds from a mine in the South Australian desert. "Given the dust storms... which [the] news said originated from Woomera, and which is right next door to the Olympic Dam mine at Roxby Downs, these [storms] could blow those tailings across the face of Australia," Mr Bradbury asserted. Mining companies have stressed that dust levels are carefully monitored, while the health concerns have been dismissed by a senior environmental toxicologist. Barry Noller from the University of Queensland says that many of the particles from mines in the outback are simply too heavy to be carried by the wind over long distances. "In a big dust storm, the dust is not going to come from one isolated site, it is going to be mixed in with dust from a [wide] area and diluted considerably," Mr Noller said. The latest murky haze that spread over parts of Queensland at the weekend is dissipating and weather forecasters say it should soon start to move out to sea. A storm which blew in from the Australian outback blanketed Sydney in a layer of orange dust. Here, residents describe the bizarre and frightening scene. Tanya Ferguson said the dust was the weirdest thing she had seen in her life, turning the city into a scene from another planet. "It was like being on Mars," she told the BBC News website. "I haven't been there, obviously, but I imagine that's what the sky would look like." She said she woke to a massive gust of wind blowing through her windows early in the morning. "The whole room was completely orange. I couldn't believe my eyes," she said. Ms Ferguson said she initially thought there was a bush fire. When she finally decided to venture outside, she said the entire city was covered in a film of orange dust. "All the cars are just orange - and the orange was so intense," she said by phone from Sydney, where she has lived for the past six years. "It was like being in the outback, but it was right here in the city." Ms Ferguson said the sky was overcast and it was very dusty, making her sneeze a lot. Public transport was disrupted and the roads were clogged as drivers struggled in the difficult conditions, but she said some people went to their jobs, and she saw a few residents wearing face masks. By evening, Ms Ferguson said there were blue skies over Sydney and that it was returning to a normal day. 'Pink until noon' Fellow Sydneysider Nick Beaugeard said his four young children were really frightened when they woke up on Wednesday morning. "There was a really red glow inside the house, really crimson" he said. "It looked like the end of the world." After the initial shock, he said the children got really excited and went off to school where they said it was "pink until noon". Mr Beaugeard - who moved to Australia from the UK in 1998 - had to drive to work from the Northern Beaches area because the ferries were closed. "It was like driving through a pea soup of fog," he said, "except it was bright red". He said the lights looked blue because it was so red outside. Mr Beaugeard said his wife - who is an asthmatic - was fine despite the blanket of dust and fog. "She went out with a scarf over her mouth and she came back without it," he said. He said the dust left everyone with a dry mouth, and a really gritty taste, but caused no breathing problems for his wife. 'Armageddon' Andrew Hawkins, who lives in Northmead, about 20km from the centre of Sydney, says he was scared at first because it looked like the end of the world. "This morning's dust storm was unbelievable… It was like waking up to see that Armageddon is upon us," he wrote in. Mr Hawkins said he thought his eyes were playing up, or that there had been a nuclear explosion or a bush fire. He described an ethereal scene of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House as he rode the train to work. "To see a city of such beauty shrouded in red, was a sight which cannot be described - even pictures fail to capture the eerie nature of the scene which surrounded us this morning," Mr Hawkins added. Another Sydney resident, Kirsty Ainsworth, said it was like being in a film. "It was really, really bizarre. It was actually like being in a movie - the Day After Tomorrow or Armageddon," she said. Ms Ainsworth said there had been storm warnings on Monday and Tuesday, but the dust storm took everybody by surprise. "It came out of nowhere," she said, adding that visibility had improved enough for her to make it to work by around 0830 local time. "Everybody's cars were caked in orange dust, and there's still sand everywhere," she said.-(personal message)-untill the news website deletes them you can see the pictures that made the headlines here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/8270107.stm