"Last recommended evacuation warning lifted in Fukushima, but many remain wary"

As reported by the Asahi Shimbun, the national government of Japan has lifted any remaining evacuation orders from the Fukushima Prefecuture town of Minami-Soma, near the wrecked reactors at Fukushima Daiichi.

The area had been under mandatory evacuation orders, the article reports, because:

"The districts in Minami-Soma were designated as such because they were at risk of exceeding the annual accumulated dose limit of 20 millisieverts, or 3.8 microsieverts per hour."

However, government decision makers had lifted the orders, because:

"Central government officials explained their latest decision to the residents and local officials, saying that the health risks are not expected because radiation levels in their sites now measure well below the designated limit of 20 millisieverts."

20 milliSieverts/year, or 2 Rem/year, is a large dose, however. It is the legal limit for radioactivity exposures to nuclear workers in Germany, for example.

"Health risks are not expected" flies in the face of U.S. NAS findings, affirmed for decades, that any exposure to ionizing radioactivity carries a health risk of cancer, and that these risks accumulate over a lifetime of exposures.

The 2 Rem/year "allowable" standard was an emergency level set in the aftermath of the beginning of the 3/11/11 nuclear catastrophe. Before the triple meltdown, the "allowable" level for members of the public had been 100 millirem/year, but this was increased 20-fold, in order to decrease the size of the evacuation area. The health consequences of this decision will unfold over time, in the lives of area residents never evacuated, or evacuees now being pressured to return to their radioactive homes.