Monday, October 17, 2011

Tales from Japan: Radiation has tainted the Land


A government map displaying radiation levels in 10 prefectures relatively close to the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. Areas in red show over 3 million becquerels of cesium per square meter, whereas those in light brown show less than 10,000. (Data as of Sept. 18. Image courtesy of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology)
Map of Eastern Japan showing the distribution of radioactive cesium 137 and 134. Released Oct. 6, 2011
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111007p2a00m0na009000c.html
It has been over 7 months and hotspots of radiation are being found all over Eastern Japan.  The most alarming being in urban highly populated areas like Tokyo, Saitama and Chiba. This map depicts a grim picture for areas tainted with high levels of radiation. Previously many radiation maps had given data in  Sieverts or radiation that was present or asorbed. But this map shows us the radiation in Becquerels. Some of you may be shaking your head Fukushima Fallout explained.

To put it bluntly this map is not showing how much radiation is in the air or how much is still raining down from Fukushima. It is now clearly showing that the ground and surronding natural sources themselves are emitting radiation. The land is radioactive: the ground we are walking on, the trees, the animals, the food we grow, it can no longer be washed away but the radioactive material is embedded in the ecosystem.

One thing this map does not mention is the radioactive isotope, Strontium 90, which is almost always present with Cesium. Strontium is known to gather in the bones and cause leukemia. EPA website Strontium


Compare the map above to the one from Chernobyl. Similar to Fukushima, winds along with groundwater carried radioactive isotopes north creating severe fallout in Belarus and Russia, just as bad as areas next to the Chernobyl plant.

File:Chernobyl radiation map 1996.svg

From 1986 to 2000, 350,400 people were evacuated by the government from Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine and resettled in other areas. The government moved many out by bus immediately after the incident and paid for their relocation.

As of September 2011, only around 100,000 Fukushima Prefecture residents have officially been relocated by the government. Initially over 200,000 were forced to evacuate in March and months later most were forced to return.  Of course many used whatever money or resources they had left to start a new life elsewhere. And every month thousands of people continue to leave Fukushima, many requesting work transfers or fleeing to any Prefecture that will help pay the cost of moving for them.

But as the map at the beginning of post indicates this is no longer a Fukushima problem.  Where I live in Chiba, there are many people who I know personally who are leaving after seeing the reality of fallout.

Mycroplasma Pneumonia data from past 10 years from the Japanese Infectious Disease Surveilliance Center
Just look at this data for example of pneomonia over the past 10 years. 2011 is the red line which has nearly doubled after Fukushima, even though it was out of season. In fact if you look at this site you`ll see most infectious diseases are extremely higher this year IDSC website

People in our neighborhoods are seeing their children suddenly develop severe sicknesses that never affected them before, or in some cases they have relapses of illnesses they had when they were infants or young children such as asthma, eczema, and other rashes. I have seen 10 different aged children all have nosebleeds on the same day. That is unbelievable!

I have had a number of health problems myself: headaches, fatigue, chestpain, insomnia, and even collapsed on one occasion. But none of these symptoms can be chalked up to radiation as the cause? But come on people the timing is too incredible for me! and it is not worth the risk of believing elite newscasters, TV networks, and other government funded media sources, who continue to downplay the affect of radiation. I have seen many TV programs devoted to explaining that radiation is natural or it is no different from taking an X ray, but nobody takes an X ray everyday, or furthermore, ingests the radioactive material in the X ray machine.  But essentially that is what is happening every day to people in Eastern Japan.

There is something not right going on and it is only going to get worse as people continue to live in ignorance of the facts. Fukushima radiation is taking a toll on everybody. Cancer risk may only increase 10% but people`s immune systems are being overloaded by the constant bombardment of radiation and health is depleting rapidly. This is the greater risk, perhaps. People may not contract cancer but they will be weaker and more susceptible than before.  And that is 100% guaranteed.

1 comment:

  1. Steve, thanks for your informative posts.

    I am sorry you are going through this. I am sorry everyone is going through this.

    This situation seems so overwhelming. I guess the only solution is to leave.

    God bless.

    ReplyDelete

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