nuclear-news

The Mystery of Fukushima – Cecile Asanuma – Brice

Libération というフランスのメーンな新聞の一つで（ジャンーポール・サルトルを設立した新聞ですが）、私の記事、今回　関連死とエクスパートの戦い （Baverstock先生や津田先生）について乗せていただきました。　ご参考まで

My piece for Liberation Journal about the “zero death” legend in Fukushima

Mon dernier article paru dans Libération présentant un bilan sanitaire de la situation à Fukushima sur la légende “du zéro mort” :

Cécile ASANUMA-BRICE Chercheure associée au centre de recherche de la Maison franco-japonaise de Tokyo 23 septembre 2014 à 18:06

Image source ; Buddhism and Disasters: From World War II to Fukushima http://www.japanfocus.org/-Brian-Victoria/3717

Translated From French using google and small grammatical changes by arclight, original here Entitled La legende Fukushima

On the issues of energy and debates on climate change the nuclear industry still appears to promote the security of its services, after human disasters such as Chernobyl or Fukushima, which should have been sufficient to highlight the unacceptable human cost of nuclear power and to consider radical changes that occurred in the cases of some European countries.

In this context, the legend of “zero death” obligingly created by some scientists, plays a strategic role in every disaster that we are hearing about in Fukushima now. Even though the authorities and citizens of the countries concerned must face a sudden increase in mortality of the population.

Three and half years after the accident at Fukushima, the number of deaths related to the explosion of the nuclear plant Fukushima Daiichi Tepco continues to grow. According to the newspaper Tokyo Shimbun, more than 1,100 deaths are recorded on the 11 September. The aging population, relocated in “temporary” housing, was the first hit.

The right to shelter was not granted, despite recommendations by the rapporteur for Human Rights of the UN, Anand Grover following his mission to Japan in late 2012. No financial support was allowed for these peoples relocation. Their health conditions deteriorate to as time goes by, while others decide to go at their own expense because of the environmental instability being so unbearable on a day to day basis.

Falling into a spiral of poverty affects some of them who are fighting depression and alcoholism. The towns of Namie (333 deaths), Tomioka (250 deaths), Futaba (113 deaths) and Okuma (106 deaths), adjacent to the plant whose leaks of contaminated water are still out of control, there has been a total of 802 deaths, formally identified as being significant to the explosion of the power plant (55 were recorded in the past six months).

The newspaper Fukushima Minpo pulled the alarm bells on June 21 in reporting the statements of the Ministry of Interior on the number of suicides on the rise. Increasing the number of thyroid cancers should also be taken into account in the assessment of the health consequences of the explosion. According to the Commission of Inquiry of Fukushima prefecture, 104 children under 18, among the 300 000 components the sample were diagnosed with cancer of the thyroid. The voices of epidemiologists, inside and outside of Japan countered the position of the departmental committee of experts in Fukushima, that these cancers would not be consistent with the explosion. These Fukushima experts “justified” the increasing number of cases by the development of existing radiological devices.

Following the same logic of attempted moral support of the people, and the dual perspective of the reopening of the evacuation zone in order to rehouse the population as quickly as possible and scheduled restart two power plants in 2014, the Ministry Environment supports, in a report dated August 17 ​​that below 100 mSv / year, there would be no impact on health.

Professor Toshihide Tsuda, Okayama University, specializing in epidemiology, questioned publicly, the investigation of the Medical University of Fukushima, saying both that the WHO report 2013 notifies an increase in current and future number of cancer at Fukushima.

On the other hand the position of the Japanese government in denying the health effects below 100 mSv is a scientific aberration. Professor Keith Baverstock, epidemiologist, formerly of WHO, in an open letter to the United Nations Scientific Committee on the effects of radioactive releases letter (UNSCEAR) is attacking, meanwhile, the 2013 UNSCEAR report stating that this document was published three years after the survey on which it is based due to conflicts between the Members of the Committee.

One of them, Dr. Wolfgang Weiss, opposed to its publication, which concluded that the denial of any increase in cancers related to the explosion. However, this report does not negate the fact that the accident is in no way complete, since, according to the same report from Tepco (May), the radioactivity continues to leak in the central Pacific Ocean and in the air.

Before the doubts expressed by experts on official reports, others who nevertheless came from the same organizations (WHO, IAEA, ICRP) settle at the 3rd Symposium of international experts to Fukushima, organized by the Sasakawa Foundation and the Medical University Fukushima on 8 and 9 September. Title announced surpassing epidemiological quarrels finally reach the summits promising resilience and reconstruction. Abel Julio González, while a member of UNSCEAR, has served as a member of the Committee on the safety standards of the IAEA, it’s all about communication and is first to calm concerns “irrational” populations due, in his opinion, the term “contamination” which, referring to the pathology, radiation poses a negative image. Idea further Emilie van Deventer (WHO) proposes the integration of workshops on irradiation and comparable to the education in the formation of primary school children. “Anyway, she says, we must meet the challenge of cost benefit.“

These experts, if the insured value of their psychological assumptions about the fears of the public and how to handle them should instead be focused on the data and the evidence and consequences in terms of public health this brief survey has allowed us to show?

Cécile Asanuma–BRICE Research Associate at the Research Center of the Franco-Japanese House in Tokyo

September 29, 2014 - Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized