AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

View Alerts By > Case | Date | Country | Victim

AAAS Human Rights Action Network

Letter of Appeal from the AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility

31 August 1998

Dr. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León
Presidente
Presidencia de la República
Palacio Nacional
Centro
México, D.F.
At'n: Lic. Leonor Ortíz Monasterio
Coordinadora de Atención Ciudadana
Referencia: Folio-199224-31

Dear Mr. President:

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the largest organization of natural and social scientists in the United States, and the world's largest federation of scientific organizations, with 143,000 individual members and 275 affiliated groups. Our AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility was formed in 1976 to protect the human rights of scientists and to deal with issues relating to scientific freedom worldwide.

We are writing to you on behalf of the Committee, regarding a lengthy report recently received by AAAS from Mexican physicist Dr. Bernardo Salas. According to the report, Dr. Salas was fired from his job at the Central Laguna Verde of the Federal Electrical Commission on 21 May 1996 for speaking out about dangerous conditions at the nuclear power station. It is also our understanding that a number of plant workers, who were among hundreds dismissed without compensation from the plant last year, have now contributed their own testimony about the dangerous conditions at Laguna Verde.

It is our understanding that Dr. Salas was employed at Laguna Verde for eleven years and coordinated the radiological protection team. He claims that he was dismissed from his position for speaking out about transgressions there. The Committee is deeply concerned about the serious allegations made by Dr. Salas in his report. These include the diversion of public funds, negligence in carrying out safety procedures for handling and storing radioactive material, and the abuse of authority. Among the plant's transgressions, according to Dr. Salas, are the:

· burning of radioactive material in the open air; and secret burning of radioactive oil on the beach near the power plant;
· failure to implement the internal emergency plan during a serious incident in 1993;
· manipulation of the radioactivity counter used to monitor the contamination of workers (the device was never tested when it was installed and it did not work);
· manipulation of the computerized worker contamination counter used to measure total exposure of workers. This may have led to the death from cancer of a number of workers;
· · faulty installation of a monitor to measure radioactivity in the area, putting at risk those who worked near the facility;
· incorrect calibration of monitors to measure individual contamination;
· purchase of low quality equipment instead of that reflected in purchase orders;
· purchase of defective radioactivity detectors, despite their removal from the market by the company that manufactures them;
· incorrect classification of radioactive waste products, which were then moved without adequate protection; and
· leakage of System Stand-by Liquid Control (SLC), which led to levels of contamination of workers in two months equal to what they would normally be exposed to in two years.

Dr. Salas has informed the Committee that each of these complaints was brought to the attention of his superiors, each time to a higher level of authority. However, instead of taking actions to correct the problems, the management's response to his observations and suggestions included gradual demotions reducing his responsibility as Radioactive Protection Engineer, withdrawal of financial incentives and opportunity to work overtime, isolation from his colleagues, and his assignment to work without necessary equipment in a building near the beach where radioactive waste was stored.

The Committee also has learned that plant administrators have publicly accused Dr. Salas of being mentally ill, yet they reportedly offered him back pay in exchange for renouncing his statements implicating plant operations. It is our understanding that Dr. Salas refused the offer on the grounds of his professional ethics.

The Committee calls on your government to request a technical and administrative audit of the Laguna Verde facility by an impartial, international body, and to make the results of the investigation public. We urge you to use your good offices to assure that plant administrators and local authorities reevaluate Dr. Salas's claim of unjust termination of employment, and that Dr. Salas be reinstated to his original position as Radioactive Protection Engineer or given a position at the plant of equal responsibility until the investigations are completed.

In addition, the Committee respectfully requests that you to call on plant administrators to provide Dr. Salas with back pay if it is determined by independent investigators that Dr. Salas was unjustly fired, respond to Dr. Salas's allegations, and provide an explanation for his dismissal.

Sincerely,



Irving Lerch, Chair Mary Gray, Chair
Committee on Scientific Freedom Committee on Scientific Freedom
and Responsibility and Responsibility

Main | CSFR Letters | Science and Human Rights Program