GEİGER 832

A company established in the Emrez neighborhood of Gaziemir district in İzmir to recycle scrap batteries and produce lead ingots operated from 1940 until 2010.

This factory, located within an area of 70 decares, is emitting high radiation and poisonous gases into the environment from radioactive waste (Europium 152) buried in the soil within its boundaries, whose origin and time of burial are unknown, especially after rain.

The presence of nuclear waste at the factory was detected by the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority in 2007, but it was brought to public attention by environmental reporter Serkan Ocak in an article titled 'Izmir’s Chernobyl' published in the Radikal newspaper on December 3, 2012.  

After the news broke, Aegean Environmental and Cultural Association, the Environmental Engineers, and the Green and Left Future Party put the issue on their agendas.
Experts working on the matter stated that the annual radiation dose people are exposed to is 1 µSv/h, but measurements taken with a Geiger counter in the area showed 832 µSv/h (µSv: microsievert, an international unit used to measure the harmful effects of radiation on the human body).

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