From: rense.com
No Protection For Fukushima's
'Expendable' Citizens Or UsBy Dr. Ilya Perlingieri
2011
All Rights Reserved
5-4-11
"The residents of Japan have good cause to mistrust the media, TEPCO officials, and members of their government when it comes to assurances about radiation levels, plutonium dispersal, and the related health risks. Americans also have good cause to mistrust these same sort of assurances issued to American residents." --Lucas W. Hixson, April 23, 2011
Over the past few weeks, Japan, the US, and EU all have issued public statements that confirm the total disregard for safety, protection, and well being of their citizens. In their Orwellian rhetoric, this means harm is the order of the day. The most immediate radiation threats from Fukushima's on-going nuclear nightmare are to all citizens throughout Japan. From the beginning, on March 11, there was no serious evacuation plan. The original 10-mile Fukushima evacuation was worthless. On April 26, the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl's nuclear catastrophe, Physicians for Social Responsibility [PSR], "underscored the ongoing health risks of nuclear energy to the public. [a] clear reminder that standard evacuation zones cannot protect the public from a nuclear accident."(1)
PSR also has released "a new interactive Evacuation Zone Map" to give us a clear picture of continuing nuclear dangers. CK THIS SITE!! In the US, more than one-third of the population (111 million) lives within 50 miles of a nuclear reactor [many are old and have serious problems, such as Vermont Yankee; 13 are the same kind as at Fukushima]. "Given the consequences of the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters; PSR is calling for a major reassessment of contingency plans for nuclear accidents, as well as a full and fair accounting of the data on the impact on public health and the environment."(2) This reassessment is extremely important. Realistically, however, how many years will it take to implement long-overdue REAL emergency plans, when almost nothing was done between Chernobyl's nuclear catastrophe and Fukushima? We don't have years any more.
There is no Precautionary Principle in this wrecked scenario. How many more people will develop radiation-induced cancer or die, while they're still working on implementing something? What devastating radioactive harm will come to our children and grandchildren, while officials "debate" what should be done? What kind of continuous delaying propaganda tactics will the nuclear industry pull?
Reactor Workers
As of now, there has been one cover-up after another, putting everyone in danger. So, the reactor's workers were the first to die. Actual numbers of dead clean-up(sic) workers haven't been reported yet. Recruiting ads (not done by TEPCO, but by a maintenance company) for temporary workers do not warn potential employees of any possible nuclear dangers on the job. By sub-contracting this hazardous labor, costs are brought down, and profits soar. Further, "TEPCO and other power companies have always refused to disclose the list of subcontractors."(3) Without any public disclosure or accountability, no one knows who is doing what. There are about 700 workers at Fukushima's radioactive site. At a daily rate of about US$122, this is hardly worth getting cancer and dying. "TEPCO and NISA [Nuclear and Industrial Safety Industry] keep diffusing their usual propaganda to minimized the radiation risks."(4)
These temporary contract day workers, "doing the most dirty and dangerous jobs in the nuclear plants[and] who fall ill, will not even appear in the statistics. What is clear is that the contract laborers are routinely exposed to the highest level of radiation."(5) In addition, this crisis is also exacerbated by two other issues: Firstly, there is a complicated procedure for any temporary workers "who need to apply for occupational hazard compensation."(6) Secondly, doses for radiation exposure have changed and for the worse. On March 14, the Japanese industry of Health and Labor raised "the maximum [radiation] dose for workers to 250 mSv [milli Sieverts] a year" an increase in exposure from the previous 100 mSv.(7) These new figures are also drastically higher than those from the International Commission on Radiological Protection's guidelines stipulating a maximum of 20 mSv a year."(
In either case, it is obvious that deliberately manipulating exposure levels, to a mostly uninformed public, only increases our perils.
www.activistpost.com/2011/04/eu-follows-epa-raises-acceptable.html Noted nuclear radiation physician Dr. Helen Caldicott has repeatedly said there is NO SAFE LEVEL OF EXPOSURE. Last week, in an online article, she wrote:
"The grave effects of internal emitters are of the most profound concern at Fukushima -as indeed they continue to be at Chernobyl. It is erroneous and misleading to use the term 'acceptable levels of external radiation' in assessing internal radiation doses. To do so is to propagate inaccuracies and to mislead the public worldwide and journalists who are seeking the truth about radiation's hazards."(9)
What is at risk, to the nuclear industry, is not our lives. The risk issues for them are their profits and the future of nuclear energy. We live at a time devoid of ethics; so the corporations involved will do anything to keep it going, even sacrifice our lives for their greed.
Prof. Jobin, also noted that this expansion of allowable radiation dosages may "perhapslimit the number of possible applications for recognition of occupation disease."(10) Corporate accountability is not part of this broken and criminal system. This is a decades-long theme-and-variations: Anything they can get away with they do. Governments comply. A rare exception is University of Tokyo professor Toshiso Kosako. He was hired in March as nuclear safety advisor to the Japanese government. He resigned last Friday April 29, saying: "the prime minister's office and agencies within the government 'have ignored the laws.'"(11)
Conditions at Fukushima, according to Prof. Jobin, are atrocious. A TEPCO employee described "the extremely difficult conditions for intervention [and safety] and the patched together systems they are compelled to use to protect themselves, like wrapping themselves in plastic bags [a worthless attempt], for lack of appropriate protective suits."(12) This is exactly the same corporate modus operandi that BP used in hiring temporary workers throughout the oil-rig catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. Workers there had little-to-no protective gear while they cleaned up deadly dispersants; and reporters were either kept away from clean-up sites or threatened if they reported what was actually happening. While BP was barely protecting temporary workers it hired [many of whom are now critically ill or have died], it continues to make repulsive, yet record corporate profits. One year after the Gulf disaster, "BP posted a first-quarter [2011] profit of $7.1 billion, an increase of 17 percent."(13)
Evacuation & Radiation Exposure
Real evacuation for millions of Japanese has never happened. Japanese children, elders, and pregnant women are the most vulnerable. How many women have already had miscarriages or given birth to stillborns, or those with serious deformities? How many women who are still in their first or second trimester of pregnancy will still have to face this kind of life-changing tragedy? There are no mainstream media reports of critical nuclear reproductive dangers. For decades, the media has been silent. The only reports of extreme and tragic birth deformities usually stay in obscure medical journals. The public's right to know about these environmental hazards that affect all our lives never figures into any governmental policy equation.
This also goes for all of us in North America, as the onslaught of invisible ionizing radiation is hitting us 24/7 and we, too, are in danger. Conveniently, EPA's monitoring systems were not working, or REAL daily radiation levels were not reported. There is always some excuse. The exceptions are the following radiation websites. As we have long-term radiation exposure, they are worth posting again:
http://transport.nilu.no/browser/fpv_fuku?fpp=conccol_Xe-133_;region=NH and
www.radiationnetwork.com If you live anywhere near the Los Angeles, CA, area, here is another monitoring site:
www.ustream.tv/channel/live-radiation-monitoring-from-west-la These sites continue to be very valuable so we know our daily radiation risks. This is a cumulative, but invisible, radiation hazard that goes into our bodies. There also have been numerous reports in alternative news of high rates of Cesium-137 (found in milk, from cattle grazing on radioactive land), Iodine-131 (goes into the thyroid); and Strontium-90 (goes into our bones and teeth). "It is a very complex microscopic assault on living tissue."(14)
Dr. Caldicott continues to remind us all that we cannot "confuse the effects of external and internal [nuclear] radiation."(15) External radiation is what happened when the US dropped bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Internal radiation is what is happening now where radioactive elements continue to enter our bodies: through the air we breathe; and eating from an already highly contaminated food chain; and what is absorbed though our skin [the largest organ in our bodies]. We are now exposed to all of these different avenues of radioactive contamination. We are at the top, as it bio-accumulates up the food chain. As it enters
"the body, these elements - called internal emitters - migrate to specific organs such as the thyroid, liver, bone, and brain, continuously irradiating small volumes of cells with high doses of alpha, beta and/or gamma radiation, and over many years often induce cancer. Further, many remain radioactive in the environment for long periods, posing danger for future generations. The grave effects of internal emitters are of the most profound concern at Fukushima -as indeed they continue to be at Chernobyl. It is erroneous and misleading to use the term 'acceptable levels of external radiation'' in assessing internal radiation doses. To do so is to propagate inaccuracies and to mislead the public worldwide and journalists who are seeking the truth about radiation's hazards." (16)
In addition, there has been little reporting on the repercussions of the deadly nature of the MOX [mixed oxide] plutonium releases from the spent fuel rods stored on this site for 40 years. "According to the Nuclear Information Resource Center (NIRS), this plutonium-uranium fuel mixture is far more dangerous than typical enriched uranium [as] a single milligram (mg) of MOX is as deadly as 2,000,000 mg of normal enriched uranium."(17)
Plutonium-239 has a radioactive half-life of 24,000 years, while Uranium-235's half-life is 700-million years. Multiply that by the 600,000 spent fuel rods at Fukushima's Unit 3 Reactor (no longer under 45-feet of water to keep them cool). Once there wasn't any more cooling water, fusion took place and the destruction of "unit 3 Reactor was the cause of the massive hydrogen explosion."(18)
As Lucas Hixson reported after looking at the hi-resolution photos of Unit 3: "The top of the primary containment vessel, as well as the top of the reactor itself, is simply GONE. Even to a layperson, it is obvious that this means that the huge hydrogen explosion at unit 3 must have occurred in the reactor itself, and that the entire top of the reactor containment vessel was obliterated, ejecting the contents of the core -as well as the spent fuel pool- into the atmosphere. This means, obviously, that significant quantities of plutonium were released, and that the release of radiation from unit 3 alone must be many times higher than has been admitted for the entire complex --Chernobyl pales in comparison. It is apparent that Tepco, the NRC, and the Japanese and American government officials, among others, are participating in a cover-up of the extent and severity of this disaster. This almost certainly applies to the blandly misleading assurances about the harmlessness of the fallout on US soil. The whistle must be blown, loud and clear."(19)
On May 3, another fire also has broken out at Fukushima's Reactor Unit 4, and reported:
http://lucaswhitefieldhixson.com/fukushima-daiichi-reactor-4-fire-may-3-2011 There is no containment, and this reactor has both plutonium and uranium:
www.scribd.com/doc/50823093/Another-Fire-breaks-out-at-Fukushima-Daiichi-Reactor-Unit-4-This-one-has-Plutonium-Uranium-too-there-is-no-containment-area
None of this is fixable.
What has been the typical agency response? On April 21, the FDA refused to test Alaska fish for radiation. Both the ocean and air currents coming from Japan are both highly radioactive as they continue to travel around the globe wrecking invisible havoc. No one is safe, while the collusion continues between malfeasant corporate decisions and those officials in charge. None of this is any accident. This is planned incompetence for massive criminal cover-ups.
Despite finding high doses of radiation in our water, soil, milk, and fruits, radiation dose exposure levels have also been increased for both the Japanese and US populations. On May 2, "furious parents in Fukushimadelivered a bag of radioactive playground earth to educational officials in protests" to government changes in radiation exposure.(20)
According to these official changes, "children can now be exposed to 20 times more radiation than was previously permissible."(21) The accompanying photo to this article shows a young schoolgirl wearing a face mask. These paper masks are useless against radiation exposure. Despite high-radiation levels, schools will remain open. "It is estimated than 75 percent of Fukushima's schools may have radiation levels above the old safety level of 1 mSv."(22) Children, who are more vulnerable to cancer and numerous kinds of reproductive damage, will continue to be at more extreme risk. Nonetheless, parents' concerns continue to be ignored.
America has already been contaminated with an assortment of Dante's Inferno of radioactive isotopes. Instead of warning us about exposure dangers, more deception has been handed to us. Both the EU and US have raised "acceptable" radiation levels for food. In the US, Congressional approval is not legally required. So, "the [EPA's] new standards would result in a 'nearly 1,000-fold increase for exposure to Strontium-90, a 3,000 to 100,000-fold hike for exposure to Iodine-131, and an almost 25,000 rise for exposure to radioactive Nickel-63' in drinking water."(23)
According to corrupt officials, it is okay for all of us to eat radioactive contaminated food, day in and day out. Since nothing is accurately tracked, when cancer rates begin to inevitably soar, no one will ever be held accountable. Can we connect the dots? This is all about long-term injury. We cannot trust any official to tell us the truth about chronic radiation exposure. Historically, we never could.
ON March 25, the EU ordinance [#297/22011] implemented these increased exposures to radiation. Instead of banning all food imported from Japan, risks are now double for anyone foolish enough to even consider buying radioactive food. For example, exposure to both Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 have now doubled, including baby foods and formula.
The fact that both the US and EU raised radiation levels is surely not co-incidental. Raising the maximum radiation exposure doses for humans and also for our entire food supply is another way that we are being deliberately duped. It isn't bad enough that the corporate-controlled media lies; it is also pervasive throughout agencies and governments. Manipulating figures or data and juggling toxic exposure levels are more indications that our lives count for nothing. The entire globe continues to be heavily contaminated by on-going radiation levels from Fukushima, from the 600,000 spent fuel rods, the meltdowns of the reactors and release of radioactive elements, and dumping of 11,500 tons of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean. When are we going to wake up collectively and really see through their lies and deceit? When will we really understand the massive harm to which they continue to subject us? When are we going to hold them accountable?
Source;
http://www.rense.com/general94/noprot.htm
