Radiation Exposure and Risk
Ionizing radiation damages living things and contaminates the environment, sometimes permanently. Studies have shown increases in cancer around nuclear facilities and uranium mines. Radiation mutates genes which can cause genetic damage across generations.
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"The plant has been leaking radioactive substances since it was hit by a magnitude-9 earthquake and resulting tsunami on March 11.
About 45 per cent of children in Fukushima prefecture experienced thyroid exposure to radiation after the nuclear power there was damaged in March, officials said Tuesday." The Hindu
Hokkaido Cancer Center director Nishio Masamichi, a radiation treatment specialist, has published a very hard hitting critique of the Japanese government and nuclear power industry's performance regarding the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe. The Asia-Pacific Journal's Japan Focus has published a review. Masamichi expresses grave concerns for the health of residents downwind and downstream of the catastrophic radioactivity releases, and offers suggestions of critical changes that need to be made to thus far incompetent and confused emergency response.
Aileen Mioko Smith, director of Green Action Japan, has just announced an opportunity for individuals and organizations across the world to sign a petition demanding increased protection for the children of Fukushima against the clear and present danger from the Daiichi nuclear power plant's ongoing releases of hazardous radioactivity. To read and sign the petition, go to the Green Action Fukushima Updates website.
July 6, 2011