Grand Canyon visitors ‘exposed to radiation’ for nearly two decades
Visitors to the Grand Canyon National Park museum might have been exposed to uranium radiation for nearly two decades.
The park’s health and safety manager said buckets of uranium were left in the Museum Collections Building in 2000 and weren’t removed until last summer.
Elston Stephenson told CNN employees and visitors may have been exposed to unsafe levels of radiation.
He said his concerns were continually ignored by management so he sent an email to all employees.
"If you were in the Museum Collections Building between the year 2000 and June 18, 2018, you were ‘exposed’ to uranium by OSHA’s definition," he wrote.
"Please understand, this doesn’t mean that you’re somehow contaminated, or that you are going to have health issues. It merely means essentially that there was uranium on the site and you were in its presence. … by law, we are supposed to tell you."
The National Park Service is now investigating along with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Arizona Department of Health.
"There is no current risk to the public or Park employees," the department said in a statement.
Uranium occurs naturally at Grand Canyon National Park at ‘background’ levels which is below the level where it could become a health risk.
Stephenson told CNN he found out about the three buckets of uranium ore last June, which were placed behind a museum exhibit close to where visitors walked past every day.
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