Radioactivity test on first day of school in Belgium
What a way to start the school year!
I’ve lived in Belgium for 7 years before I moved to Germany and Switzerland. It was my first home base in Europe when I “wandered” to Europe 17 years ago. So even though I am no longer a resident of this small but charming country, I was troubled to hear about the recent leak from a nuclear research institute close to the French-speaking city of Charleroi last week.
The accidental leak could possibly have affected the local residents, many of them children. In fact, hundreds of Belgian children underwent thyroid gland tests to check for radioactive contamination on their first day back at school this week. Everybody is hoping for the best and bracing for the worst. In a BBC report, people in the vicinity of the leakage are warned not to eat locally grown products, including fruit vegetables and fruit.
Radioactive contamination in the environment is a very serious thing and can especially be detrimental to the health of young children as well as unborn embryos and fetuses. The legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Japan), and more recently, Chernobyl (Belarus) left many then children and infants (now adults) ill, malformed, or disabled.
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