Irradiation opponents
prepare for battle
A 60-second television commercial
By Rod Thompson
will protest approval of the facility
Star-BulletinHILO -- The battle takes to the airwaves now that the Hawaii County Council has approved $2 million for building a fruit irradiation facility and for marketing irradiated fruit on the mainland. The Vermont-based Food and Water Inc. yesterday announced a new 60-second anti-irradiation commercial to be played on Hawaii television stations.
"Radioactive nuclear waste and the fruits of Hawaii. The last thing you want to do is combine the two," the commercial says.
The organization has already promised a nationwide boycott of Hawaii products if irradiation goes forward.
Council action yesterday restricts money to use of cobalt-60, which is not nuclear waste. It is manufactured by a Canadian company using nonradioactive cobalt-59.
The measure's passage in a 7-2 vote does not mean an irradiator will be built by the county any time soon, perhaps not at all.
"This bill is just a starting point in a long process. It doesn't put any money in the bank; it doesn't commit any money," said Councilman John Ray.
But it does send a strong signal that the county is willing to enter a partnership with the agricultural industry and irradiation companies, he said.
Isomedix of New Jersey, which operates several medical irradiators around the country, had asked for just such a partnership before committing to building a facility on the Big Island.
Although asking for that assurance, Isomedix officials came to Hawaii several weeks ago and said they are well on the road to private funding and building their own facility.
The bill now goes to Mayor Stephen Yamashiro, who originated the proposal.
He has said the facility is needed to kill fruit-fly larvae in various exotic tropical fruits, experiencing rapidly increasing production, so they can be shipped to the mainland.
Fruit flies released on the mainland could devastate agriculture there. No alternative treatment is available for fruits such as rambutans and lychees.
Private test marketing during the last two years of fruit irradiated in Chicago with state assistance has shown consumers will readily buy the fruit.
But 125 citizens spent the entire day yesterday testifying to the Council that the facility is a bad idea because it and the food it treats would allegedly be unsafe.
Mililani Trask, head of the sovereignty organization Ka Lahui, testified that it would pose a danger because Hawaii poses major earthquake hazards.
The Council inserted a provision that any facility must be built in consultation with the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
One of the few voices supporting an irradiator was University of Hawaii Professor James Moy, who has operated the Hawaii Research Irradiator for 32 years, he said."I have eaten many irradiated papayas and I don't glow in the dark," he said.
Civil Defense Director Harry Kim said: "I wish we would look into other alternatives."
He added, "If mankind obeys the rules of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, this facility can and will be safe." But he warned against operators cutting corners to make money.
The staff of the federal regulatory agency is "stretched out," he said. "You're lucky if you get a visit once or twice a year."
The regulatory commission would permit monitoring of facilities by the state Department of Health and Hawaii County Civil Defense, but enforcement would remain in federal hands, he said.
