Environmental Education in Brazil:Preventive Measures to Avoid Contaminationwith U and Th

摘要

Aiming at increasing awareness of radiation health effects, environmental issues andpreventive measures, the Nuclear Energy National Commission (CNEN) launched in 2004 aneducation and public outreach programme for mine workers, students, teachers, governmentalleaders, labor representatives and members of communities nearby small mining sites at the Northand Northeast regions. Many Brazilian conventional mines present a significant risk of exposure toradiation due to Uranium and Thorium. CNEN inspects the mines but there are several smallmining sites dedicated to open pit short term mineral extraction, called "garimpagem", that are ofdifficult control. Therefore, information at large about preventive measures to avoid contaminationduring exploration, transportation and storage is necessary. CNEN developed an educationalcampaign which includes a series of open seminars, talks, folders, booklets and posters.The objective of this paper is to present the Brazilian educational campaign to avoidcontamination risks at those small mineral exploration sites and its results. This campaign is a jointtask that receives collaboration of other organizations such as federal police, schools anduniversities.