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Doctors to Say UN Science Report Systematically Underestimates Health Impact of Fukushima Catastrophe

Concerns to be Outlined in NYC About Conflicting United Nations Fukushima Reports and Their Global Implications

http://www.istockanalyst.com/business/news/6617925/doctors-to-say-un-science-report-systematically-underestimates-health-impact-of-fukushima-catastrophe

22 October2013

What:
Two conflicting reports on Fukushima – one by the U.N. Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on the right to health and the other by the U.N. Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) – will be discussed at a public meeting on October 24, prior to the presentation of the reports to the U.N. General Assembly on October 25 at the 3^rd and 4^th Committees, respectively. Speakers will include: the author of the Human Rights Council report, a co-author of an NGO critique of the UNSCEAR report, and a representative of a Japanese human rights organization.

Since the March 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, individuals and communities in Japan continue to be exposed to dangerous levels of radioactivity. There are serious concerns about consequent health effects for citizens in contaminated areas. Residents have a right to live in a safe and healthy environment, however, sufficient protective measures and support are not being provided. The right of access to medical treatment and the medical data about one’s own body are being seriously denied. Experts will speak about how these two U.N. reports impact policy regarding the lives and health of citizens currently affected after the nuclear disaster, and what should be done to provide immediate relief to protect their fundamental right to health.

When:
Thurs., Oct. 24, 2013, 9:30 a.m.-Noon.

Where:
Baha’i International Community – 866 U.N. Plaza, Suite 120 – New York City.  Free and open to public – no UN pass required – 48th Street & First Avenue.  Due to limited space, please register (name, contact info, affiliation) by sending an email to HRNNY1024@gmail.com.

Speakers:

• Anand Grover, special rapporteur on the right to health, U.N. Human Rights Council, and visitor to Japan when writing the Human Rights Council report;
• Dr. John Rachow MD, Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), and a visitor to Fukushima in 2012; and
• Mari Inoue, Esq, Human Rights Now, a Japanese human rights organization.

Media Contacts:
Alfred Meyer, (202) 215-8208 or alfred.c.meyer@gmail.com (PSR USA); and alexrosen@gmx.net (IPPNW Germany).

Backgrounder:
As physicians concerned with the effects of radioactive fallout on human health and the ecosystem, Physicians for Social Responsibility-USA and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War-Germany have reviewed the upcoming United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) report to the U.N. General Assembly. We appreciate the effort made by UNSCEAR committee members to evaluate the extensive and complex data concerning the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. While parts of the UNSCEAR report will be useful in the future to assess the consequences of the nuclear meltdowns on public health and the environment, we believe the 2013 UNSCEAR report systematically underestimates the true extent of the catastrophe. Many of the assumptions are based on the two WHO/IAEA reports published in May 2012 and February 2013, which did not accurately portray the true extent of radiation exposure, followed faulty assumptions, ignored the ongoing radioactive emissions over the past 2½ years and excluded non-cancer effects of radiation.

HUMAN RIGHTS NOW: Human Rights Now (HRN), an international NGO in consultative status with the ECOSOC, is based in Tokyo with several hundreds of members composed of lawyers, scholars, journalists and concerned citizens. In July 2011, on behalf of a coalition of civil society groups in Japan, Human Rights Now requested the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for a Special Rapporteur to investigate the human rights situation after the disaster. In response to the request, Anand Grover, the special rapporteur on the right to health, visited Japan in November 2012. In December 2012, HRN submitted a joint statement, endorsed by more than 70 civil societies in Japan and worldwide, urging the IAEA and the Japanese government to take a rights-based approach in response to the nuclear disaster based on the preliminary findings and recommendations issued by Grover in November. To raise awareness of the situation in Fukushima after the nuclear accident, HRN NY has organized human rights seminars and a press conference to inform the international community about the ongoing crisis. (http://hrn.or.jp/eng/)

PHYSICIANS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), the U.S. affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) advocates for sound public health policies regarding exposure to radioactive and other toxic materials. PSR is the medical and public health voice working to prevent the use of and to abolish nuclear weapons, to promote safe, non-nuclear energy, and to slow, stop and reverse global warming and the toxic degradation of the environment. Fukushima presents an immediate challenge to protect those individuals most endangered by exposure to dangerous levels of radioactivity, and to adequately and openly track the health consequences of the ongoing irradiation of populations. PSR was founded in 1961 and was instrumental in achieving the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that ended the global radioactive contamination produced by atmospheric nuclear bomb testing. PSR shared in the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), for building public pressure to push their governments to end the nuclear arms race. (http://www.psr.org/)

/PRNewswire-USNewswire — Oct. 22, 2013/

SOURCE Physicians for Social Responsibility and Human Rights Now

(Source: PR Newswire )
(Source: Quotemedia)

October 22, 2013 - Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized