Almost nothing to see here, move along. Almost a year after Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s six reactor
Daichi Fuskuhima complex was rocked by an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale and subsequent tsunami, both Tokyo and TEPCO maintain that the effects of the disaster have been contained. However, the following story seems to indicates differently.
Dr. John Apsley joins George Noory on the U.S.’s number one late night radio program
Coast to Coast AM to report on increased deaths in North America that he believes are associated with the Fukushima catastrophe, and the leaking of radiation. There was a spike in infant mortality rates within the first 10 weeks of the catastrophe in cities across the US, and the radiation contamination likely came through rainfall, he said, adding that infants were particularly susceptible because of their reduced thyroid function.
LISTEN: Apsley's discussion with Noory.
Apsley and nuclear engineer
Arnold Gundersen appeared on a radio program together in July. Listen
HERE.
Scientists now believe that the true figure might be closer to 20,000 excess deaths. Interview with
Dr. Janette Sherman and
Joseph Mangano, co-authors of the
medical journal article on 14,000 excess U.S. deaths following Fukushima.
Download the program
HERE.
SOURCE:
Nuclear Hotseat
Meanwhile, in
Canada, radioactive Iodine has been found in the rainwater and the public was left in the dark. not notified by health authorities.
After the Fukushima nuclear accident, Canadian health officials assured a nervous public that virtually no radioactive fallout had drifted to Canada. But last March, a Health Canada monitoring station in Calgary detected an average of 8.18 becquerels per litre of radioactive iodine (an isotope released by the nuclear accident) in rainwater, the data shows. The level easily exceeded the Canadian guideline of six becquerels of iodine per litre for drinking water, acknowledged Eric Pellerin, chief of Health Canada's radiation-surveillance division. "It's above the recommended level (for drinking water)," he said in an interview. "At any time you sample it, it should not exceed the guideline." Canadian authorities didn't disclose the high radiation reading at the time. In contrast, the state of Virginia issued a don't-drink-rainwater advisory in late March after iodine levels in rain in a nearby city spiked to 3.4 becquerels per litre on a single day. That was less than half of the level seen in Calgary during the entire month of March. Radioactive iodine also appeared in smaller amounts in March in Vancouver (which saw an average of 0.69 becquerels per litre in rainwater, up from zero before Fukushima), Winnipeg (which got 0.64 becquerels per litre) and Ottawa (which had 1.67 becquerels per litre), the data shows. These other levels didn't exceed the Canadian limit for drinking water.
But the level in Ottawa did surpass the more stringent ceiling for drinking water used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The data still isn't posted on Health Canada's web page devoted to the impacts of Fukushima. Pellerin said he doesn't know why Health Canada didn't make the data public. "I can't answer that. The communication aspect could be improved." The rainwater data also raises questions about how Ottawa monitors radiation after a nuclear crisis: Some of Health Canada's numbers are much lower than those reported by other radiation researchers. Simon Fraser University nuclear chemist Krzysztof Starosta found iodine levels in rainwater in Burnaby, B.C., spiked to 13 becquerels per litre in March - many times higher than the levels Health Canada detected in nearby Vancouver. Rain was tested only at the end of each month, after a network of monitoring stations sent samples to Ottawa. This meant the radiation spikes last March were only discovered in early April, after rainwater samples were sent to Ottawa for testing - too late to alert the public, including those who collect rain for drinking and gardening. In contrast, the EPA tested the rain for radiation every day and immediately reported the data on its website. - Montreal Gazette.
In addition to this, radiation has also been found in 65% of
Japan-caught fish.
After the world’s worst nuclear accident in 25 years, authorities in Canada said people living here were safe and faced no health risks from the fallout from Fukushima. They said most of the radiation from the crippled Japanese nuclear power plant would fall into the ocean, where it would be diluted and not pose any danger. Dr. Dale Dewar wasn’t convinced. Dewar, a family physician in Wynyard, Sask., doesn’t eat a lot of seafood herself, but when her grandchildren come to visit, she carefully checks seafood labels. She wants to make sure she isn’t serving them anything that might come from the western Pacific Ocean. Dewar, the executive director of Physicians for Global Survival, a Canadian anti-nuclear group, says the Canadian government has downplayed the radiation risks from Fukushima and is doing little to monitor them.
“We suspect we’re going to see more cancers, decreased fetal viability, decreased fertility, increased metabolic defects – and we expect them to be generational,” she said. And evidence has emerged that the impacts of the disaster on the Pacific Ocean are worse than expected. Since a tsunami and earthquake destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant last March, radioactive cesium has consistently been found in 60 to 80 per cent of Japanese fishing catches each month tested by Japan’s Fisheries Agency. In November, 65 per cent of the catches tested positive for cesium (a radioactive material created by nuclear reactors), according to a Gazette analysis of data on the fisheries agency’s website. Cesium is a long-lived radionuclide that persists in the environment and increases the risk of cancer, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, which says the most common form of radioactive cesium has a half-life of 30 years.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which monitors food safety, says it is aware of the numbers but says the amounts of cesium detected are small. “Approximately 60 per cent of fish have shown to have detectable levels of radionuclides,” it said in an emailed statement. “The majority of exported fish to Canada are caught much farther from the coast of Japan, and the Japanese testing has shown that these fish have not been contaminated with high levels of radionuclides.” But the Japanese data shows elevated levels of contamination in several seafood species that Japan has exported to Canada in recent years. In November, 18 per cent of cod exceeded a new radiation ceiling for food to be implemented in Japan in April – along with 21 per cent of eel, 22 per cent of sole and 33 per cent of seaweed.
Overall, one in five of the 1,100 catches tested in November exceeded the new ceiling of 100 becquerels per kilogram. (Canada’s ceiling for radiation in food is much higher: 1,000 becquerels per kilo.) “I would probably be hesitant to eat a lot of those fish,” said Nicholas Fisher, a marine sciences professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Fisher is researching how radiation from Fukushima is affecting the Pacific fishery. “There has been virtually zero monitoring and research on this,” he said, calling on other governments to do more radiation tests on the ocean’s marine life. “Is it something we need to be terrified of? No. Is it something we need to monitor? Yes, particularly in coastal waters where concentrations are high.” Contamination of fish in the Pacific Ocean could have wide-ranging consequences for millions.
The Pacific is home to the world’s largest fishery, which is in turn the main source of protein for about one billion people in Asia alone. In October, a U.S. study – co-authored by oceanographer Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at the non-profit Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Mass., – reported Fukushima caused history’s biggest-ever release of radiation into the ocean – 10 to 100 times more than the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. “It’s completely untrue to say this level of radiation is safe or harmless,” said Gordon Edwards, president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility. Edwards, who is also a math professor at Vanier College, said Fukushima has highlighted how lackadaisical Canadian authorities are about radiation risks – the result, he says, of the influence of Canada’s powerful nuclear industry. “The reassurances have been completely irresponsible. To say there are no health concerns flies in the face of all scientific evidence,” said Edwards, who has advised the federal auditor-general’s office and Ontario government on nuclear-power issues. - Montreal Gazette.
Read more on this extensive report
HERE.
To compound the matter even further, the approaching
debris from Japanese tsunami may contain hazardous materials.
Seaview beachcomber Matt Mulvey is eager for debris from the Japanese tsunami to wash up on the Long Beach Peninsula. He hopes to find real glass fishing floats and buoys among the sea-trash swept into the Pacific Ocean after the massive March 11 earthquake off the coast of Japan and which now is floating slowly, inexorably toward North America. "I'm not worried about radioactivity. We've got more radioactivity coming out of Hanford than we're gonna get from Japan," Mulvey said Tuesday, referring to radiation leaks the earthquake caused at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant. However, scientists are cautioning beachcombers that they might get more than they bargained for when the debris starts washing ashore. The approaching debris likely will contain hazardous materials and objects.
Radiation is not considered among the hazards, but it is possible the flotsam that washes ashore could include skeletal human remains. The first big wave of debris is not expected for another year, but officials are holding a series of public safety meetings on tsunami debris next week in three Pacific County locations. In addition to warning about hazards, officials also are asking the public to be respectful of what they find on the beaches and be on the alert for information that can help Japanese families track down missing relatives. - TDN.
The
Fukusima Diary is reporting that radiation level increased double within 20 days after decontamination.
From 12/6/2011 to 12/20/2011, Japanese self defense force went to Fukushima to decontaminate. 900 members were sent to the town halls of Narahamachi, Tomiokamachi, Namiemachi, and Iidatemura. As expected, they successfully proved decontamination is meaningless.
Self defense force struggled to decontaminate the flags of the Iidatemura town hall on 12/20/2011.
12/20 : 1.57 microSv/h
12/29 : 2.87 microSv/h
1/10 : 3.26 microSv/h
Between the stones of the path, dead leaves were already put.
Experts and house makers are warning about high-pressure washing to decontaminate the roofs because it may hurt the roof but doesn’t decrease the radiation level. Some of the local governments are starting to remove it from the decontamination options.
Fukushima local government tried to decontaminate the roof of a house in Oonami Fukushima, 8/2011.
However, the radiation level of 1cm above the roof (Concrete) only decreased by less than half.(2.4 microSv/h→1.6 microSv/h).
When it comes to slate, it was only 2.4 microSv/h → 2.0 microSv/h, and in the case of tiled roof, it was only 1.2 microSv/h → 1.1 microSv/h.
What's worst, it has now been discovered that
radioactive gravel was likely shipped to over 200 companies in Japan.
Radioactive gravel thought responsible for high radiation readings in a new apartment complex in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, was likely shipped to over 200 companies, making its way into apartments, bridges, and possibly temporary homes for evacuees, according to government investigators. The gravel was kept in a part of the town of Namie, in an area near the disaster-hit Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. From the time the nuclear disaster began to the establishment of the area as an evacuation zone on April 22, the company owning the gravel had shipped 5,200 metric tons of it to 19 companies, according to national and local government sources.
Two of the receiving companies were ready-mix concrete companies and the rest were construction companies. However, the gravel was then reportedly sent on to over 200 other companies, where it was used in building materials. On Jan. 16, Fukushima Prefectural Government officials agreed at a meeting to work to help move residents from the homes affected by the radioactive gravel, investigate the source of the contamination, and check for other places where contaminated building materials may have been used. - MDN.
