Roberta Hall hosts Navajo elder Perry Charley, Program Manager at the Uranium Education Program of the Dine Environmental Institute at Dine College in New Mexico. He talks about the effects of uranium mining on the Navajo people and issues of environmental justice.
Dine College's Uranium Education Program (UEP) is an empowerment program for Navajo Native Americans concerning radiation and environmental health issues arising from the legacy of former uranium mining/milling operations and other serious environmental impacts on the Navajo reservation. Uranium mining and milling has left large areas of the Navajo reservation contaminated with abandoned mines, mine waste and mill tailings and associated radiation. There are well-documented problems with lung cancer and silicosis in former Navajo uranium miners, and there is great concern among uranium millers and other Navajos who reside near contaminated areas about late effects of radiation exposure from these sources. There has been growing concerns over various environmental issues and their impacts to health and the environment.