Effects of Fukushima: 2016

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Group to monitor trial of former TEPCO executives to clarify truth about Fukushima disaster

The Asahi Shinbun
January 27, 2016

By MASAKAZU HONDA/ Staff Writer

Lawyers, journalists and scientists will form a group to help expose the truth and spread details about the Fukushima nuclear disaster during the criminal trial of three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power Co.
“We will encourage the court to hold a fair trial while transmitting information regarding the trial across the nation,” said an official of the planned organization, whose name is translated as “support group for the criminal procedure on the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.”

Tsunehisa Katsumata, former chairman of TEPCO, the operator of the crippled plant, and two former vice presidents, Sakae Muto and Ichiro Takekuro, face mandatory charges of professional negligence resulting in death and injury.

Although the trial is still months away, 33 people are now setting up the group, including Ruiko Muto, who heads an organization pursuing the criminal responsibility of TEPCO and government officials for the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Tetsuji Imanaka, an assistant professor of nuclear engineering at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute, and Norma Field, a professor emeritus of East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago, have also joined.

Three reactors melted down at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11, 2011. A number of hospital patients died in the chaotic evacuation.
About 14,000 residents of Fukushima Prefecture filed a criminal complaint against TEPCO executives, government officials and scientists in 2012, saying they were aware of the dangers to the Fukushima nuclear plant from a tsunami, but they failed in their responsibility to take proper countermeasures.

Tokyo prosecutors twice decided not to indict the three former TEPCO executives. However, the Tokyo No. 5 Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution, a panel of citizens, decided to forcibly indict the three in July last year.

“It has been almost five years since the disaster, but many details, including their foreseeability of the tsunami, remain unclear,” said science writer Takashi Soeda, one of the group’s co-founders. “As TEPCO has not unveiled a sufficient amount of information even in inquiries conducted by the Diet and the government or in civil lawsuits, the truth must be uncovered through the legal force of a criminal trial.” Five lawyers appointed by the Tokyo District Court will act as prosecutors in the trial. Legal experts expect the lawyers will indict the former TEPCO executives and release a statement naming the victims around March 11, the fifth anniversary of the triple disaster that still haunts the Tohoku region.

By MASAKAZU HONDA/ Staff Writer

NRA’s data shows contamination level in Tokyo tap water higher than Fukushima by 24 percent

Fukushima Diary
by Mochizuki , January 27, 2016

According to NRA (Nuclear Regulation Authority), Cs-134/137 density in Tokyo tap water is 24% higher than Fukushima. The report was released on 10/30/2015, titled as “Readings of radioactivity level in drinking water by prefecture” to cover from July to September in 2015.

From this report, only 0.0015 Bq/Kg of Cs-137 was detected in Fukushima drinking water. Cs-134 was not supposed to be detected. On the other hand, 0.00036 Bq/Kg of Cs-134 and 0.0015 of Bq/Kg were detected from Tokyo drinking water. The measurement of Cs-134 is due to Fukushima accident. NRA comments each data is based on the reports from prefectures. It is not mentioned by Fukushima prefectural government why Cs-134 was not detected in their drinking water.

http://radioactivity.nsr.go.jp/en/contents/11000/10416/24/194_20151030.pdf

Iori Mochizuki

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Monday, January 25, 2016

Radiation in the Environment Around Fukushima Daiichi NPS

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Study: 28% Increase In Thyroid Problems In Babies Born After Fukushima in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington

Posted on April 3, 2013 by WashingtonsBlog

Is Fukushima Causing Health Problems In the United States?

Infants are much more vulnerable to radiation than adults. And see this. However, radiation safety standards are set based on the assumption that everyone in the world is a healthy man in his 20s. Now, a medical doctor (Janette D. Sherman, M. D.) and epidemiologist (Joseph Mangano) have released a study showing a 28% increase in thyroid problems in babies born in Hawaii and America’s West Coast after the Fukushima nuclear accident.

Janette Sherman, M.D. worked for the Atomic Energy Commission (forerunner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) at the University of California in Berkeley, and for the U.S. Navy Radiation Defense Laboratory in San Francisco. She served on the EPA’s advisory board for 6 years, and has been an advisor to the National Cancer Institute on breast cancer. Dr. Sherman specializes in internal medicine and toxicology with an emphasis on chemicals and nuclear radiation.

Joseph J. Mangano is a public health administrator and researcher who has studied the connection between low-dose radiation exposure and subsequent risk of diseases such as cancer and damage to newborns. He has published numerous articles and letters in medical and other journals in addition to books, including Low Level Radiation and Immune System Disorders: An Atomic Era Legacy.

Their new study – published in the Open Journal of Pediatrics – is entitled “Elevated airborne beta levels in Pacific/West Coast US States and trends in hypothyroidism among newborns after the Fukushima nuclear meltdown.”

Common Dreams notes:

[The study found that] children born in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington between one week and 16 weeks after the meltdown began are 28 percent more likely to suffer from congenital hypothyroidism (CH) than were kids born in those states during the same period one year earlier.

CH results from a build up of radioactive iodine in our thyroids and can result in stunted growth, lowered intelligence, deafness, and neurological abnormalities—though can be treated if detected early.

According to researchers from the Radiation and Public Health Project who performed the study, “Fukushima fallout appeared to affect all areas of the US, and was especially large in some, mostly in the western part of the nation.” They add that CH can provide an early measure to “assess any potential changes in US fetal and infant health status after Fukushima because official data was available relatively promptly.”

Health researcher Joe Mangano similarly cautioned, “Reports of rising numbers of West Coast infants with under-active thyroid glands after Fukushima suggest that Americans may have been harmed by Fukushima fallout. Studies, especially of the youngest, must proceed immediately.”
Earlier this year, the Fukushima Prefecture Health Management Survey found that more than 40 percent of the Japanese children studied showed evidence of thyroid abnormalities, which Wasserman says signifies a “horrifying plague.”

Sherman and Mangano published an essay in June 2011 claiming that the 35% spike in infant mortality in Northwest cities since the Fukushima meltdown might have been caused by radiation and they published a study in December 2011 in the peer-reviewed journal International Journal of Health Services, alleging that 14,000 people had already died in the United States due to Fukushima. A Scientific American blog post and Med Page Today slammed the study as being voodoo science. However, Scientific American does admit:

Certainly radiation from Fukushima is dangerous, and could very well lead to negative health effects—even across the Pacific.

Update: ABC 10 News and MSN’s Healthy Living have picked up on the story.

Your Radiation This Week No 40 January 23, 2016

By Bob Nichols, Veterans Today

*Listed in Counts per Minute, a Count is One Radioactive Decay Registered by the Instrument.

All Radiation Counts reported are partial Counts. Uncounted types of radiation include Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Neutron and X-Ray radiation. Uncounted radiation, if added, makes the actual Count higher and more dangerous.

The highest radiation reporting city is listed first, the least radioactive city reporting is listed last. Still, all reporting cities are above normal. These are the American cities that exceeded 1,000 CPM this week.

Normal Radiation is 5 to 20 CPM. [6]

1,556	CPM,	311.2	Times Normal,	Miami, FL.	Beta, Gamma.
1,476	CPM,	295.6	Times Normal,	Colorado Springs, CO.	Beta, Gamma.
1,436	CPM,	287.2	Times Normal,	Kansas City, KS.	MIA Last High
1,426	CPM,	285.2	Times Normal,	Little Rock, AR.	Beta, Gamma.
1,373	CPM,	272.6	Times Normal,	Raleigh, NC.	Beta, Gamma.
1,278	CPM,	255.6	Times Normal,	Lubbock TX.	MIA, 5 Yr High
1,265	CPM,	253	Times Normal,	Spokane, WA.	Beta, Gamma.
1,133	CPM,	226.6	Times Normal,	San Diego, CA.	Beta, Gamma.
1,124	CPM,	224.8	Times Normal,	Portland, ME.	Beta, Gamma.
1,117	CPM,	223.4	Times Normal,	Atlanta, GA.	Beta, Gamma.
1,107	CPM,	221.4	Times Normal,	Tallahassee, FL.	Beta, Gamma.
1,104	CPM,	220.8	Times Normal,	Pittsburgh, PA,	Beta, Gamma.
1,101	CPM,	220.8	Times Normal,	Shreveport, LA.	Beta, Gamma.
1,100	CPM,	220	Times Normal,	Laredo, TX.	Beta, Gamma.
1,100	CPM,	220	Times Normal,	Rapid City, SD.	Beta, Gamma.
1,096	CPM,	219.2	Times Normal,	Lexington, KY.	Beta, Gamma.
1,066	CPM,	213.2	Times Normal,	Riverside, CA.	Beta, Gamma.
1,060	CPM,	212	Times Normal,	Idaho Falls, ID.	Beta, Gamma.
1,043	CPM,	208.6	Times Normal,	Anaheim, CA.	Beta, Gamma.
1,042	CPM,	208.4	Times Normal,	El Paso, TX.	Beta, Gamma.
1,029	CPM,	205.8	Times Normal,	Hartford, CT.	Beta, Gamma.
1,028	CPM,	205.6	Times Normal,	Mason City, IA.	Beta, Gamma.
1,019	CPM,	203.8	Times Normal,	Denver, CO.	Beta, Gamma.
1,014	CPM,	202.8	Times Normal,	Boston, MA.	Beta, Gamma.
386	CPM,	77.2	Times Normal,	Washington, DC. High	Tampered with.
72	CPM,	14.4	Times Normal,	Washington, DC. Low	Tampered with.

Normal Radiation is 5 to 20 CPM. [6]

Radiation Effects

Infections Linked to Chinese Seafood Markets in New York

“People are encouraged to wear waterproof gloves in their home when preparing live or raw fish or seafood that came from a market in Chinatown, especially if they have cuts or abrasions,”

"There was no evidence that eating fish from any of those markets could cause illness, officials said."

By MARC SANTORA, MARCH 5, 2014, The New York Times

At least 30 people have contracted a rare skin infection after buying seafood at markets in Chinese neighborhoods across New York City, prompting health officials to issue a warning to consumers and market workers to take precautions when handling raw or live fish.

The source of the outbreak was unclear, but health officials said that all of the people who were infected had bought fish at markets in Sunset Park, Brooklyn; Flushing, Queens; or Chinatown, in Manhattan. There was no evidence that eating fish from any of those markets could cause illness, officials said.“People are encouraged to wear waterproof gloves in their home when preparing live or raw fish or seafood that came from a market in Chinatown, especially if they have cuts or abrasions,” the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said in a statement.

Dr. Jay Varma, the deputy commissioner for disease control, said the bacterium that causes the infection, Mycobacterium marinum, is common in fish and aquariums but rarely causes infections in humans. “If you were to ask 100 doctors if they had seen a case, you would be lucky to find one who had,” he said. “For us to see 30 cases clustered like this is very unusual.”

The investigation into the source or sources of the outbreak is complicated, in part because the infections tend to take weeks to show symptoms.In a typical case, Dr. Varma said, the first signs of infection are bumps under the skin or tender lesions. From there, it worsens into a wound that will not heal.

The infection can spread to the soft tissue below the skin and then into tendons and muscles. It is treatable with a targeted combination of antibiotics. But if the infection goes untreated for a prolonged period, it can require surgery to repair damage to nerves, tendons and muscles.

Dr. Danny Fong, a hand surgeon who works in Manhattan’s Chinatown and is the president of the Chinese American Medical Society, said he saw perhaps one case a year. The source of the infection has been varied, he said. For instance, he had one patient who worked on boats and most likely got infected after scrubbing barnacles off a ship’s hull.

Dr. Fong was not alarmed when he saw an infected patient in August.But then in September he saw another. Then another. Then another. By February, at least 15 people had shown up at his office with the type of lesions that are the hallmark of the condition.He alerted the health department a little over a week ago. Since then, the department has identified an additional 15 cases.

“We anticipate we will definitely learn about more,” Dr. Varma said. Dr. Fong said that doctors in the community have been warned to be on the lookout for the infection, and that he could only guess as to the cause of the outbreak. Most of his patients, he said, were infected after skin punctures from fish bones. But one patient fell ill after cutting himself on a lobster.

While all of the patients were infected after handling live or raw seafood, health officials could not rule out other possible sources of the infections, such as the water in the fish tanks. So far, no fish markets have been closed; Dr. Varma said he suspected there were multiple problematic locations.“We don’t think it is one market,” he said, “but it could be.”

The investigation was in its early stages. City, state and federal officials were examining how seafood tanks at the markets are cleaned, and if practices have changed recently. They were also looking at the origin of the fish sold at these markets and whether any new species were being sold. The warnings did little to slow the activity at fish markets across the city on Wednesday, with many shoppers unaware of the warnings.In some neighborhoods, the haggling and trading takes place on the sidewalk. At the Asian fish markets in Flushing, the activity takes place inside, but is no less frenzied.

Handwritten cardboard signs in Chinese stick out of the ice identifying the day’s catch: yellow croakers, sea bass, razor clams. Fish sellers in a handful of shops in Brooklyn and Queens wore gloves or used clear plastic bags when handling raw or live fish. “Everybody knows if you don’t use gloves it’s very dangerous, even when you clean the fish,” said Nicky Chen, the manager of S&P Seafood on Eighth Avenue.He wore thick rubber gloves as he sold fish, clams, crabs and lobsters. Many customers, however, seemed comfortable touching the fish barehanded.

Eli M. Rosenberg and Jeffrey E. Singer contributed reporting.

Massive bloody tumors appearing ever more frequently in Pacific sealife, as U.S. government and media continue to ignore Fukushima radiation

Tuesday, January 19, 2016 by: David Gutierrez, staff writer, Natural News
Tags: Pacific sealife, radiation, cancer tumors

Large, bloody tumors continue to turn up in Pacific marine animals, raising concern that the ocean food web may be widely contaminated by radioactive isotopes from the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Unfortunately, no U.S. government agency has tested the ocean or its animals for this contamination, making it impossible to know how many North Americans are consuming radiation-contaminated seafood.

In March 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami triggered a triple meltdown at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The plant ejected an enormous volume of radioactive waste, nearly all of which found its way into the Pacific Ocean. In June 2015, researchers confirmed that Fukushima radiation carried by ocean currents had started to arrive along North America's west coast.

Migratory fish had, of course, already been swimming in those same currents for four years.

Strange tumors never seen before

Shortly after the Fukushima disaster, observers started to notice strange tumors turning up in Alaskan fish. According to the Local Environmental Observers (LEO) Network in Hydaburg, Alaska, the past year has seen many reports of these growths in the flesh of salmon, including fish that appeared healthy from the outside.

"In all the years I've been fishing I never caught any fish like this," said LEO volunteer Sam Kunaknana. "Caught 3 more sick fish with same markings and this time one had some kind of growths coming out from its mouth."

Other fish showing mysterious tumors include Pacific herring and Canadian whitefish. The growths have also been commented on by fishermen and marine biologists.

And it's not just Alaskan fish, but marine life all across the Pacific. Mysterious tumors have been observed in everything from shrimp and sea stars to sea lions and walruses. Polar bears and marine mammals have also been observed demonstrating unexplained hair loss, an early symptom of radiation poisoning.

Further afield, biologists recently discovered two disturbing firsts in the waters off Australia. In one case, reported in the Journal of Fish Diseases, a great white shark was found to have a tumor a foot long and a foot wide protruding from its mouth.

"This was a very unusual sight as we have never before seen a white shark with tumors," said study co-author Rachel Robbins.

Indeed, sharks had been believed to be mostly immune to tumors. Yet, recently, researchers also discovered a tumor on the head of a bronze whaler shark, also in Australian waters.

The other first was the discovery of human-style skin cancer on a coral fish in Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Radioisotopes accumulate in muscle and bone

The causes of these tumors remain unknown, but a compelling possible explanation is radionuclide contamination from Fukushima. Among the isotopes that flooded into the Pacific Ocean are cesium-137 and strontium-90, both of which accumulate in the bodies of animals that ingest them. That means, of course, that these isotopes would also accumulate in the bodies of humans who eat contaminated fish.

Strontium-90 is particularly worrisome because it mimics calcium in the body, and therefore accumulates in bones. This dramatically raises the risk of blood and bone cancers.

Because many fish, including salmon, migrate to Alaskan waters each year using the same currents that are carrying Fukushima radionuclides eastward from Japan, it is certainly feasible that these fish could have spent the last four years ingesting radioactive isotopes, and are now starting to show cancer as a result.

But don't look for government tests to prove or disprove this hypothesis. The government can confidently say that it has "no evidence" of a health risk from Fukushima radioactivity in seafood. That's because it hasn't bothered to test for it.