Odum School of Ecology<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\nDuring a research trip to Puerto Rico, ecologist James Porter took samples from underwater nuclear bomb target USS Killen, expecting to find evidence of radioactive matter \u2013 instead he found a link to cancer. Data revealed that the closer corals and marine life were to unexploded bombs from the World War II vessel and the surrounding target range, the higher the rates of carcinogenic materials.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnexploded bombs are in the ocean for a variety of reasons \u2013 some were duds that did not explode, others were dumped in the ocean as a means of disposal,\u201d said Porter. \u201cAnd we now know that these munitions are leaking cancer-causing materials and endangering sea life.\u201d<\/p>\n
These findings will be presented at the Second International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions on February 25-27 in Honolulu. Data has been gathered since 1999 on the eastern end of the Isla de Vieques, Puerto Rico \u2013 a land and sea area that was used as a naval gunnery and bombing range from 1943-2003. Research revealed that marine life including reef-building corals, feather duster worms and sea urchins closest to the bomb and bomb fragments had the highest levels of toxicity. In fact, carcinogenic materials were found in concentrations up to 100,000 times over established safe limits. This danger zone covered a span of up to two meters from the bomb and its fragments.<\/p>\n
According to research conducted in Vieques, residents here have a 23% higher cancer rate than do Puerto Rican mainlanders. Porter said a future step will be \u201cto determine the link from unexploded munitions to marine life to the dinner plate.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Porter believes every nation with a coastline has problems with unexploded munitions, there is a solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the creation of the Ordinance Recovery System, we now have a way to safely remove unexploded munitions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The machine picks up unexploded bombs off the sea floor and delivers them safely to a lift basket for surface disposal or deep sea burial. It is operated remotely with proportional toggle switches that allow much more fine control of the delicate undersea operation than an on\/off button. The system relies on an underwater hydraulic system designed James Barton, president of Underwater Ordinance Recovery, Inc., with the technical expertise of machinists at the UGA instrument shop.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you remove the bomb, you remove the problem \u2013 but you\u2019ve got to pick it up,\u201d said Porter.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
http:\/\/www.uga.edu\/aboutUGA\/research-bombs.html Link Between Unexploded Munitions & Cancer by Dr. James Porter, University of Georgia Department of Ecology Bombs away! Visit these Web sites for more information Complete story Odum School of Ecology During a research trip to Puerto Rico, ecologist James Porter took samples from underwater nuclear bomb target USS Killen, expecting to find evidence … Continue reading Link between Unexploded Munitions in Oceans and Cancer Causing Toxins Determined by J.W. Porter<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":302,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions\/302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reefrelieffounders.com\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}