Anger fails to stop plant Courier Mail (Australia) April 15, 2002, Monday Siobhain Ryan CONSTRUCTION work will begin this year on Queensland's first irradiation plant, despite opposition to the planned development north of Brisbane. The protests over the nature and location of the project, destined for Narangba industrial estate, spilled over to the doorstep of Parliament House in Brisbane last week. Local resident Fran Jell warned that residents would continue lobbying the Beattie Government until it backed away from the controversial plant. "There's a million reasons why it shouldn't go in there," she said. "It's right in the middle of a fast-growing housing development. The whole thing's crazy." The planned irradiation facility will be operated by the firm Steritech, which has two other plants interstate. The controversy centres both on its use of radioactive cobalt-60 as part of the sterilisation process and the company's application to extend the technology to food irradiation. Last year Steritech won the right from the Australian New Zealand Food Authority to irradiate herbs, spices and herbal teas, effectively ending a long-standing moratorium on the practice. ANZFA has since been asked to consider another application by a separate company to irradiate tropical fruit. If successful, the ruling would apply across the industry and extend Steritech's options for food irradiation even further. But Steritech general manager George West said that he was still unsure whether the company would irradiate food at the Narangba site. "We provide a contract irradiation service. People send the stuff to us and we've got no control over what comes up the driveway. Maybe nobody will ever bring herbs and spices up the driveway," he said. But, Mrs Jell said Steritech would not have applied to ANZFA to irradiate food if it had no plans to do so. "We don't want to be eating irradiated food," she said. "The long-term results from irradiated food are unknown and we don't need it. It's 50-year-old technology. There's much more modern technology used now in the processing of food and you can turn it off -- it's electronic. You can't turn off cobalt-60." The company expected to turn the first sod on the long-running project this year. FOOD IRRADIATION WHAT DOES STERITECH IRRADIATE IN AUSTRALIA * It has approval to irradiate herbs, spices and herbal teas. * Its interstate plants sterilise products such as medical devices, animal feeds, packaging and imported goods to meet quarantine laws. HOW IS FOOD IRRADIATED? * In most cases, radioactive Cobalt 60 emits gamma rays that pass through the food and destroy bacteria such as parasites, moulds, yeasts and salmonella. IS IT SAFE? * The World Health Organisation, United Nations and Australian authorities believe irradiated food is safe. Friends of the Earth and others believe it isn't. REASONS TO IRRADIATE * To protect against food spoilage and poisoning. * To substitute for chemical disinfectant ethylene oxide, now being phased out. REASONS NOT TO IRRADIATE * Alternatives are available. * Accidents at plants overseas have killed several employees through radiation exposure.