France is one of the countries that has been affected by sandstorms carrying the residues of cesium137 generated by the nuclear tests that France conducted in the Sahara Desert in the 1960s. Experts have warned that the dust containing radioactive materials is expected be blown eastward and come down in Turkey in the near future. This will pose a threat to the health of Turkish citizens.
Bekir Taşdemir is a nuclear medicine expert from Dicle University in Turkey. He says that though it is not clear exactly how much cesium is in the dust being carried by the sandstorms, people still need to be cautious. He warned “Possible high rate (of cesium) will necessitate people to stay indoors. They should not breathe the air outside and not open their windows.”
French nuclear experts had previously revealed that radioactive cesium-137 had been found in dust from the Sahara Desert after a sandstorm on February sixth traveled to the Jura Mountains. The same pattern of sandstorms is being forecasts for Turkey in the near future.
Taşdemir said in an interview conducted on Wednesday that the movement of dust particles when combined with rainfall will pose a greater threat. He said, “You should take an umbrella or have protective clothing if it is necessary to go out. If it rains, you should rapidly remove your clothes and wash them and take a shower when you return home. If radioactive residues are accumulated on your body or clothes, it poses a risk. There is also the possibility that those residues will settle on fruits and vegetables and you should be careful washing them thoroughly before consumption, in case of such a sandstorm.”
Cesium 137 is a lethal radioactive chemical element that is used in the nuclear industry. When cesium 137 touches bare human skin, it can kill the person involved in a matter of seconds. Large quantities of cesium 137 were emitted into the atmosphere following the earthquake and nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on the coast of Japan in March of 2011.
France conducted its first nuclear test on the thirteenth of February in 1960 in the Sahara Desert. It continued to carry out test nuclear detonations in the Algerian part of the Sahara Desert between 1960 and 1966. Eleven of the French nuclear tests came after the 1962 Evian Accords ended the Algerian war for independence that had lasted for six years. Algeria had been a colony ruled by France for one hundred and thirty-two years. The issue of nuclear tests remains a major point of contentions between Algeria and France. Algeria claims that that a large number of their citizens died as a result of the tests and their environment was damaged.
The Sahara dust that blanked parts of southern and central Europe last month caused a short, sharp spike in air pollution across the region according to researchers. Ultimately cesium 137 and other radioactive byproducts of nuclear tests that have been conducted since the 1950s have been carried around the world by prevailing winds. There may be no more atmospheric tests of nuclear warheads, but their fallout has saturated the global ecosystem.