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Strange deaths of horses irradiated by Fukushima nuclear catastrophe

Japan Paper: “Horses became weak and died, one by one, from an unknown cause” at farm in Fukushima — Farmer: “There is something seriously wrong going on… This country is going mad, I‘m sure something grave is going to happen” — 14 out of 15 newborn horses died last year (PHOTOS) http://enenews.com/japan-paper-horses-became-weak-and-died-one-by-one-from-an-unknown-cause-at-farm-in-fukushima-farmer-there-is-something-seriously-wrong-going-on-this-country-is-going-mad-i?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29

Kyodo News, June 14, 2014: Tadao Mitome feels a duty to continue capturing images of the area to document the effects of the nuclear disaster […] Mitome, 75, published a photo book titled “3/11 Fukushima: Hibaku no Bokujo” (“Stock Farm Exposed to Radiation”), documenting a farm in the village of Iitate and its dying horses. “People should do whatever they are capable of doing,” Mitome said […] Iitate, about 40 km away from the wrecked power plant, [farmer Tokue Hosokawa] defied the central government’s order to evacuate. […] After nearly two years, horses became weak and died, one by one, from an unknown cause. Some horses in Fukushima were also put to death and sent away for autopsies. Mitome said he felt as though the eyes of the killed animals were trying to tell him that they would never let human beings forget about the nuclear disaster. […] “There are things that I must let people in the world know,” he said.

World Network For Saving Children From Radiation, Feb. 27, 2014: Mr. Hosokawa again lost three of his horses this summer. […] “Since then, three more horses have died. This village is reaching its end […] I don’t feel good”, he said.

Evacuee from Iitate: “University of Tohoku dissected the dead horses […] there were apparent abnormal results from the analysis of the blood […] 3 more horses have died here this summer. Hosokawa must be in shock […] I have demanded the Ministry of Environment to inform us of the results. But they keep saying, ‘we don’t know anything yet’ […] why can’t they at least publish the results so far? Surely there must be something wrong if they can’t publish.”

World Network For Saving Children From Radiation: “There is something seriously wrong going on” -Hosokawa […] According to him, horses have fallen ill one by one within these short weeks […] a white miniature horse, had the worst condition. Its skin was badly damaged. The veterinarian doctor who accompanied us saw it and indicated the symptoms of damaged liver […] It had jaundiced eyes. The doctor was wondering why its knees were so wobbly. […]  15 foals have been born since the beginning of this year, but 14 of them died within a month, sometimes within a week. “I have lived with horses since I was a kid, but I have never seen anything like this. It’s not normal. I think radiation is responsible for this”. Hosokawa stresses the effect of radiation as a cause. […] we asked a public health control centre to check the blood of the miniature horse. The results were negative for transmitted diseases or nutrient deficiency. […] We were overwhelmed by Hosokawa’s ghastly expression on his face and stunned with a shock by the grave situation, which was beyond our imagination. “This country is going mad, I‘m sure something grave is going to happen”.

See photos of the horses here

June 19, 2014 Posted by | Fukushima 2014, Japan, radiation | 1 Comment

CT scans as a cause of cancer

Patients have a part to play as well. Consumers can go to the Choosing Wisely [www.choosingwisely.org] website to learn about the most commonly overused tests. 

Before agreeing to a CT scan, they should ask: 

■ Will it lead to a better treatment and outcome? 

■ Would they get that therapy without the test? 

■ Are there alternatives that don’t involve radiation, like ultrasound or MRI? 

■ When a CT scan is necessary, how can radiation exposure be minimized?

Neither doctors nor patients want to return to the days before CT scans. 

But we need to find ways to use them without killing people in the process. 

CT-scanAre we giving ourselves cancer with CT scans?  PENINSULA POLL BACKGROUNDER: By Rita F. Redberg and Rebecca Smith-Bindman  14 June 14, DESPITE great strides in prevention and treatment, cancer rates remain stubbornly high and may soon surpass heart disease as the leading cause of death in the United States.

Increasingly, we and many other experts believe that an important culprit may be our own medical practices: We are silently irradiating ourselves to death.

The use of medical imaging with high-dose radiation — CT scans in particular — has soared in the past 20 years.

Our resulting exposure to medical radiation has increased more than sixfold between the 1980s and 2006, according to the National Council on Radiation Protection & Measurements.

The radiation doses of CT scans (a series of X-ray images from multiple angles) are 100 to 1,000 times higher than conventional X-rays.

Of course, early diagnosis thanks to medical imaging can be lifesaving. But there is distressingly little evidence of better health outcomes associated with the current high rate of scans.

There is, however, evidence of its harms.
The relationship between radiation and the development of cancer is well-understood:

A single CT scan exposes a patient to the amount of radiation that epidemiologic evidence shows can be cancer-causing.  The risks have been demonstrated directly in two large clinical studies in Britain and Australia.

Continue reading →

June 16, 2014 Posted by | radiation, USA | 1 Comment

Fukushima radiation has killed one sailor from USS Ronald Reagan, with rare cancer

radiation-warningFirst Sailor from USS Ronald Reagan dies from radiation from FUKUSHIMA http://investmentwatchblog.com/first-sailor-from-uss-ronald-reagan-dies-from-radiation-from-fukushima/#TpACD1zIVugkBWMs.99 June 12th, 2014 1st death in USS Reagan case; rare cancer takes 38 yr old Tomodachi samaritan. RIP Theodore Holcomb

Information just released today by the legal team representing the USS Reagan sailors in their billion dollar lawsuit against TEPCO.

http://www.nuclearhotseat.com/1964/

The Ronald Reagan spent a couple months at sea after being dosed off with radiation, trying to clean itself up; then, according to a lawyer for the sailors claiming injury, it was decontaminated at port in Washington State for another year and a half before returning to service.

June 13, 2014 Posted by | health, Legal, USA | 2 Comments

Effects on the brain from nuclear radiation – reports from Hanford

radiation-warningNBC stations reveal nuclear workers suffering severe brain damage, dementia — Toxic waste raining down from sky, wore baseball caps for protection — Brains being eaten away, teeth falling out — Workers raising safety issues framed using false evidence, fired — Gov’t not allowed in to investigate (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/nbc-stations-reveal-nuclear-workers-suffering-severe-brain-damage-dementia-toxic-waste-raining-down-from-sky-wore-baseball-caps-for-protection-brains-being-eaten-away-workers-raising-safety NBC Right Now,Apr. 30, 2014: Former Hanford Worker Sick from Nuclear Waste

  • Jane Sander, reporter: A nuclear waste spill happened hours before at the tank farm.
  • Lonnie Poteet, Hanford worker: I was already burning from my glove line to my t-shirt line and… starting to lose a little bit of vision in my right eye… Why didn’t they say something?
  • Sander: Poteet describes living his life now as recluse… sharp pains in his head, they cause him to often twitch. He says medication prevents him from collapsing in pain due to severe nerve damage in his brain.
  • Poteet: [More Hanford workers] are going to be exposed to the same situation… Nobody is going to do anything to stop it… As long as there’s profit… and they get their bonuses on a decent time, that’s all they care about… Most of the workers onsite right now are running scared. They will not bring up any safety concerns because as soon as you do, you’re going to be labeled and thrown off the site, just as fast as they can go. They’ll either create stuff that never happened, or they’ll find ways to get you.

NBC Right Now, June 5, 2014: Sick Former Hanford Worker Speaks Out

  • Jane Sander, reporter: He sadly lives his life with a deadly disease…
  • Lawrence Rouse, Hanford worker:  I have toxic encephalopathy… it eats your brain away.
  • Sander: Near the end of his almost 20 years at Hanford… he began to develop severe symptoms. Stuttering, memory loss, losing teeth…emotionally unstable…violent outbursts.
  • Rouse: [My son] wrote this letter, this little poem, and said that his dad is gone… It would rain the chemicals on you from the stack. That’s why we wore the baseball caps.
  • Sander: The Washington Dept. of Labor and DOE denied [compensation]… Since the [EEOICPA] program began in 2001, they’ve paid more than $1 billion in compensation and medical bills to [6,936 Hanford] workers…
  • Rouse: DOE has always denied everything. And that’s not going to change.
  • Sander: More Hanford workers continue to file claims for their illnesses.
  • Watch the broadcast here

KING 5 Seattle (NBC), June 4, 2014: It’s an unprecedented series of workplace accidents in the state. Since mid-March the number Hanford workers seeking medical help after breathing in chemical vapors has risen to 34.

  • Susannah Frame, reporter: Vapors causing serious illnesses at Hanford is not new… at the most contaminated workplace in the nation, OSHA can’t get past the gates to investigate.
  • Diana Gegg, Hanford worker: It’s turned my life upside down.
  • Frame: Brain damage, sudden tremors, vision loss, dementia – Illnesses the gov’t admits were caused by exposure… she can’t go out without a wheelchair, cook, or drive.

Watch the broadcast here

June 7, 2014 Posted by | health, psychology - mental health, Reference, USA | Leave a comment

Need for inquiry into cancer rates near Oyster Creek Nuclear Power PLant

Activists seek radiation study at Oyster Creek, Asbury Park Press, Kirk Moore, @KirkMooreAPP  TOMS RIVER – Ocean County activists said Wednesday night that they want researchers to take a close look at historic radiation releases from the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant.

In particular, they want a review of 1979, when the plant in Lacey had high atmospheric emissions in the same year when a near-accident dropped reactor water levels dangerously low.

“The data was extremely hard to find,” activist Janet Tauro told a panel of cancer experts and epidemiologists working with a National Academy of Sciences’ pilot study of cancer rates around Oyster Creek and six other nuclear plants.

During five weeks, Tauro said, citizen researchers found records of large releases at Oyster Creek from 1974 to 1985.

“They appear to be staggering, and we never knew,” she said during a public comment session in Toms River on Wednesday night.At the request of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the NAS is conducting the study of cancer rates around nuclear plants to determine if a much broader, multi-year study is warranted. The public hearing in Toms River was one of a series where investigators are taking comments and suggestions.

An Ocean County activist group, Grandmothers, Mothers and More for Energy Safety, along with Clean Water Action obtained a 1995 report by the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, that summarized airborne and liquid effluent releases from U.S. nuclear plants from 1974 to 1992. Those numbers showed a peak in atmospheric emissions at Oyster Creek in 1979. In those years, the plant was operated by Jersey Central Power & Light.

“In 1972 and ’73 they had some pretty high releases, and again in 1978 and ’79,” said David Lochbaum, director of the nuclear safety program at the Union of Concerned Scientists and a nuclear engineer who worked on boiling water reactors like Oyster Creek.

“What we’re asking for is NAS to look into this more closely,” said Paul Gunter of the anti-nuclear group Beyond Nuclear, which helped the Ocean County activists with documents. The 1979 atmospheric emissions of 1.01 million curies “was not the biggest release (from a plant) but that’s a very large release,” he said……….

While admitting he’s just a medical doctor and not an epidemiologist, Joseph Sauer said his review of public health databases in Illinois showed higher rates of cancers in areas close to the Dresden and Braidwood plants owned by Exelon, which now operates the Oyster Creek reactor…..http://www.app.com/story/news/local/land-environment/2014/06/04/oyster-creek-cancer-study-ocean-county/9988805/

June 6, 2014 Posted by | health, USA | Leave a comment

Compensation program for those made sick by Nevada atomic testing radiation

radiation-warningCompensation for radiation exposure discussed at event By SANDY LOPEZ, Las Vegas Review Journal, 4 June 14, View Staff Writer

More than 60 years after the testing of nuclear weapons at the former Nevada Test Site, the people who were affected are being compensated with the help of a school program.

The UNLV School of Medicine became the first institution to offer medical outreach and education to Nevada residents affected by nuclear weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site from 1951 to 1962. An outreach event took place May 16 at the Centennial Hills Active Adult Center, 6601 N. Buffalo Drive.

“We developed the Radiation Exposure Screening & Education Program to educate the public on the cancer risks that they may have been exposed to as a result of where they lived,” said Dr. Thomas Hunt, associate professor at the UNLV School of Medicine and principal investigator of the educational outreach. “We educate people, recommend screening tests based on age and gender and try to catch cancers early where people can still be cured.”

The school created the program nine years ago to offer free cancer screening clinics to Nevada residents exposed to radiation.

The program provides medical screening by appointment and diagnostic services to facilitate early detection and treatment of cancer and other health hazards associated with radiation.

Hunt estimates that between 300 and 400 Nevadans are screened annually through the program.

In addition, the program assists people through the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which provides payments to individuals diagnosed with certain illnesses as a result of the exposure to radiation released during atmospheric nuclear weapons testing or while working in the uranium mine industry.

Jenna Fox, program eligibility coordinator, estimates that as of February, people have been compensated almost $2 million and claims that more people have been approved than denied.

“We’ve had people who don’t have any insurance, but we can give them resources in the community that can help them,” Hunt said.

The most common cancers Hunt has seen due to radiation exposure are lung, breast and colon cancer. However, people can be compensated for 20 different cancers. hose eligible for compensation must have direct ties to above-ground nuclear testing or the uranium mining operation or they must have been physically present in a so-called downwind county.

Downwind counties include portions of Nevada, Utah and Arizona.

Nevada counties include Eureka, Lander, Lincoln, Nye, White Pine and the northeast area of Clark, which includes Moapa, Mesquite, Overton, Logandale and Riverside.

The act also includes survivor benefits, which are available to families of people affected by atmospheric nuclear testing or the uranium mining industry.

If the person who became ill with a compensable disease is deceased, the first person eligible to file a claim on his behalf is the spouse, followed by children, parents, grandchildren and grandparents.

Jeanette Shoemaker, a participant of the May 16 educational program, recalled living in North Las Vegas as a girl and witnessing effects of the mushroom cloud and the boom from the underground testing conducted at the former Nevada Test Site.

“I remember seeing debris from the test site on the cloth diapers that my mother used to hang outside,” Shoemaker said. “My father, grandfather and uncle all worked at the test site. I remember seeing my father come home with debris from his work, yet my mother never qualified for survivor’s benefits.”…….

Freley Hosannah, grant and project manager of the Radiation Exposure Screening & Education Program, said people should be proactive if they think they have been exposed to radiation.

“People can actually be diagnosed with cancer years later,” said Hosannah. “Two or even three generations can be affected by this. It’s important to catch cancers early before it gets to a late stage that isn’t treatable.”

For more information, call 702-992-6887 or visit medicine.nevada.edu/las-vegas/resep. Contact North View reporter Sandy Lopez at slopez@viewnews.com or 702-383-4686. Find her on Twitter: @JournalismSandy.

 

June 5, 2014 Posted by | health, USA | Leave a comment

The psychopathology of the nuclear arms race

atomic-bomb-lNuclear Crisis: Can the Sane prevail in Time? By  (about the author) OpEdNews 6/3/2014 “………Through much of recorded history it has been accepted as normal that, periodically, large groups of men should meet and hack each other to pieces. This was the method of choice for resolving disputes. In the last few hundred years, with the aid of science, our capacity for killing other members of our species has been accelerating way beyond reason. It has now reached an apogee. We are at the end of the process. We can now, in a few hours, incinerate every human being in existence. What an accomplishment! What an epitaph! We have two thousand nuclear weapons held on hair-trigger alert, already mounted on board their missiles and ready to be launched at a moment’s notice. This could happen at any time; perhaps when one of the nine nuclear states elects the ultimate psychopathic and/or narcissistic individual as their leader — one who believes that a first strike will enable him to win a nuclear war and rule gloriously thereafter.

Ian Hughes is a physicist and psychologist. He has just written a book entitled ‘Imperfect Design: How Our Psychology Threatens Our World’2. In the book he describes how psychologists and psychiatrists have recently identified three psychological disorders from which a small proportion of humans suffer. This psychologically diseased minority has tended to dominate the normal majority. The disorders can make the bearers a danger to the rest of us. And when such individuals get into power, with the destructive forces already referred to at their disposal, this danger could not be more acute and urgent. The disorders are Psychopathy, Paranoid Personality Disorder, and Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Psychopaths lack the ability to empathize with others. They relate to people in a similar way to relating to things. Many psychopaths have demonstrated their ability to kill without conscience.

Narcissists suffer from the belief that only they are important and thus are unable to appreciate the concept of equality. They have a sense of entitlement. They are entitled to more wealth, more power, more of everything than everyone else.

Paranoid Personality Disorder sufferers live in fear. They are hyper-sensitive and see everything and everyone as a threat……..Tragically, in our corporate culture the psychopaths have a home in organizations that embrace their own values……..And the government itself in many instances exhibits psychologically dysfunctional behaviour.

The most dire example of all this keeps us all in a state of conscious or unconscious dread. The existence and deployment of nuclear weapons keep the survival of the human race on a knife edge. This is not rational behavior. ………most of us do not wish to prepare for the incineration of millions of fellow human beings to make us feel ‘secure’. This sounds as extreme as paranoia can get……….

At the same time as suffering from extreme paranoia the US leaders have an attitude of ‘exceptionalism’. They have a ‘manifest destiny’. They invade and attack other parts of the world at will (provided these are parts of the world that are unable to effectively fight back). The believe that they can do this ‘by right’. Narcissism. The narcissism of the leaders of the nuclear states takes many forms. Switzerland has no nuclear weapons but its government has built nuclear shelters for all its citizens. The US government decided not to build nuclear shelters for its citizens and then went on to spend more on building them exclusively for the government than it spent on all variety of needs and services for the rest of us.6………..

Leaders of Nuclear States Show Contempt for Us All

The nuclear states who are signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (UK, US, Russia, China, and France) undertake to get rid of their nuclear weapons. The treaty came into force in 1970. Every five years there is a Review Conference to see how this is going. Before the Review Conference there are a number of Pre-Review Conferences (referred to as PrepComs) to decide what will be discussed at the Review Conference. The third (!) Pre-Review Conference for the 2015 Review Conference has just concluded — without adopting any agreed recommendations! All the nuclear states are renewing their nuclear arsenals. The British government has declared that it is building an arsenal for the next fifty years. The nuclear-armed states illustrated their commitment to making progress with disarmament by pleading that they had made a glossary of nuclear definitions! This ludicrous pantomime is treating the public with contempt. It is clear that the nuclear states have no intention of honouring the Non-Proliferation Treaty…….http://www.opednews.com/articles/Nuclear-Crisis-Can-the-Sa-by-Jim-McCluskey-Nuclear-Deterrence_Nuclear-Disarmament_Nuclear-Powers_Nuclear-Technology-Theft-140603-43.html

June 4, 2014 Posted by | 2 WORLD, psychology - mental health, weapons and war | Leave a comment

The University of Washington Medical Center tracking patients’ radiation exposure

medical-radiationFlag-USAHospital turns to big data to track, reduce radiation exposure June 2, 2014 To reduce patient exposure to radiation, the University of Washington School of Medicine is taking advantage of big data.Dose tracking technology adopted by the medical center can pull information from multiple imaging devices, then sort it into a database where it can be sliced and diced, according to InformationWeek. UW Medical Director William Shuman said that the data helps to “validate” its imaging efforts, in addition to pinpointing areas in need of improvement.

Dose tracking technology adopted by the medical center can pull information from multiple imaging devices, then sort it into a database where it can be sliced and diced, according to InformationWeek. UW Medical Director William Shuman said that the data helps to “validate” its imaging efforts, in addition to pinpointing areas in need of improvement…….
he use of data analytics is becoming an increasingly important tool in the effort to follow and reduce radiation exposure. Recently FierceMedicalImaging ran a special report on data analytics and medical imaging in which Katherine Andriole, professor and director of imaging informatics at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, talked about analytics and tracking radiation exposure.
: Hospital turns to big data to track, reduce radiation exposure – FierceMedicalImaging http://www.fiercemedicalimaging.com/story/hospital-turns-big-data-track-reduce-radiation-exposure/2014-05-30#ixzz33clZoajc

Medical Center Uses Analytics To Reduce Radiation http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/analytics/medical-center-uses-analytics-to-reduce-radiation/d/d-id/1269179

The University of Washington Medical Center uses an analytics tool to minimize patients’ exposure to radiation during routine procedures and improve overall efficiency.

June 2, 2014 Posted by | health, USA | Leave a comment

Shortcomings in doctors’ understanding of ionising radiation in medicine

medical-radiationResidents lack knowledge of radiation safety By Eric Barnes, AuntMinnie.com staff writer May 30, 2014 — Medical residents have limited knowledge of radiation safety, with just over half knowing that fluoroscopy could produce radiation-induced skin burns, for example. Radiology residents were only marginally more informed, according to survey results published inAcademic Radiology.

To their credit, 95% of residents, regardless of specialty, reported a link between ionizing radiation and the future development of cancer, the authors wrote. For radiology residents, 98% said they believe in such a link. Continue reading →

May 30, 2014 Posted by | radiation, USA | 1 Comment

Japan to check lefelong health of 20,000 Fukushima nuclear workers

text ionisingLifelong health checks planned for 20,000 workers at Fukushima plant http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201405170037 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN 17 May 14, The government will look for increased rates of leukemia and other cancers linked to radiation exposure as part of a lifelong study of 20,000 workers mobilized in the recovery effort after the 2011 nuclear disaster.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare study is projected to be still continuing 60 years from now because many of the workers are in their early 20s. The triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was triggered by the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami. The individuals taking part in the study worked at the plant between March 14 and Dec. 16 of that year.

A panel of experts on May 16 approved the ministry’s plan, including the methodology of the study, the subjects to be covered and conditions to be checked.

Under the plan, blood and liver function tests will be conducted once a year during routine health checks. Every three to five years, doctors will check for signs of kidney failure.

The ministry plans to start the study on a trial basis during the current fiscal year, which will then be expanded on a full-scale basis in fiscal 2015.

The ministry will decide at a later date which entity it will contract to carry out the study.

During the nine-month period in question, the government raised the safety limit for radiation exposure in cases of emergency from 100 millisieverts to 250 millisieverts.

Of the 20,000 workers, 174 were exposed to radiation doses that exceeded the safety limit of 100 millisieverts over five years for those working under normal conditions.

May 19, 2014 Posted by | Fukushima 2014, health, Japan | Leave a comment

Low levels of radioactive cesium produced insect deformities at Fukushima

New study reveals deaths and mutations ”increased sharply’ from exposure to Fukushima contamination, “especially at low doses” — ‘Small’ levels of cesium may be ‘significantly toxic’ — Smithsonian: “In other words, things don’t look good for the animals living around Fukushima” http://enenews.com/just-in-new-study-reveals-sharp-increase-in-deaths-and-mutations-from-exposure-to-fukushima-contamination-especially-at-low-doses-small-levels-of-cesium-may-be-significantly-toxic?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29

butterflies-mutant-0812Smithsonian Magazine, May 14, 2014: Even Tiny Amounts of Radioactive Food Made Caterpillars Become Abnormal Butterflies […] Researchers in Japan […] discovered, even a small amount of radiation is too much. […] The scientists collected plant material from around Fukushima and fed it to pale grass blue butterfly caterpillars. When the caterpillars turned into butterflies, they suffered from mutations and were more likely to die early [… even if they] had only eaten a small amount of artificial caesium […] In other words, things don’t look good for the animals living around Fukushima.

Nature — Scientific Reports (pdf), Published May 15, 2014: [We] examined possible relationships between the dose of ingested cesium per larva and the mortality and abnormality rates. Both the mortality and abnormality rates increased sharply, especially at low doses […] the mortality and abnormality rates increased sharply, especially at low doses. Additionally, there seemed to be no threshold level below which no biological response could be detected. […] the dose-response data suggests that the relatively small level of artificial cesium from the Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP may be significantly toxic to some individuals in butterfly populations […] the half lethal [i.e. LD50, amount that will kill 50% of a test subjects] dose [is 1.9 Bq per larva] and the half abnormal dose [is 0.76 Bq per larva] […] relatively small [levels] of artificial cesium from the Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP may be significantly toxic to some individuals in butterfly populations […] we assert that the half lethal and abnormal doses we obtained were quite high. […] it should be noted that we sampled contaminated leaves from Fukushima City, which many people inhabit as though nothing had happened […] Implications of the half lethal and abnormal doses we obtained in the present study will impact future discussions on the effects of radioactive exposure on other organisms, including humans. […] In conclusion, it is important to recognize the risk of internal radiation exposure due to ingested radioactive cesium, at least for the pale grass blue butterfly, and likely for certain other organisms living in the polluted area, possibly including humans. […]

View the study published by Nature here (pdf)

May 17, 2014 Posted by | environment, Japan, radiation, Reference | 1 Comment

Low dose radiation’s harmful effects on fruit flies – implications for the human species

“These results may have broader implications beyond the model organism. In particular, they may indicate an increased risk of pathological response to radiation in humans carrying hypomorphic mutations of these genes in their genome (note that both genes are highly evolutionarily conserved). Such individuals may be more vulnerable than the bulk of the population to even low levels of radiation

text-radiationResearchers reveal the secret of radiation vulnerability Medical EXpress, 15 May 14, The scientists – Boris Kuzin, Ekaterina Nikitina, Roman Cherezov, Julia Vorontsova, Mikhail Slezinger, Olga Zatsepina, Olga Simonova, Grigori Enikolopov and Elena Savvateeva-Popova – studied Drosophila flies, in whose genome weak mutations of two different genes were combined. They concluded that these mutations synergistically strengthen their mutual phenotypic expression. In other words, the aggregate effect of these mutations is much greater than that which can be produced by one of them individually.

The  bred by the scientists have a number of significant peculiarities. The experiments have shown that even low doses of X-ray irradiation (not exceeding 10 R) can cause serious defects in those flies’ legs.

In contrast, in the flies with normal (unchanged) genome such defects could not be caused even by doses of irradiation hundreds of times higher. What is more, the combination of the two mutations worsened the long-term memory impairment, earlier observed in the flies with only one of the mutations. Continue reading →

May 16, 2014 Posted by | 2 WORLD, environment, health, radiation | 1 Comment

Hundreds ill after Fukushima radioactive trash burned in major Japanese city

exclamation-flag-japanMedical Expert: Hundreds ill after Fukushima nuclear plant rubble burned in major Japanese city — Suffering nosebleeds, problems with eyes, throats and skin — Gov’t: Radiation levels were ‘low enough’ to be safe (PHOTO) http://enenews.com/medical-expert-hundreds-ill-after-fukushima-nuclear-plant-rubble-burned-major-japanese-city-suffering-nosebleeds-problems-eyes-throats-skin-govt-radiation-levels-low-enough-be-safe?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ENENews+%28Energy+News%29

Asahi Shimbun, May 13, 2014: The manga series [‘Oishinbo’] has been in print since 1983 [selling] 120 million copies […] the May 12 installment includes a segment in which residents of Osaka complain about health problems after a nearby incinerator processes rubble transported from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Japan Times, May 13, 2014: Osaka Prefectural Government took issue with the assertion, expressed by a character based on real-life medical expert Eisuke Matsui, that about 800 people living around an incinerator there have been affected by burning tsunami debris tainted with radiation from Tohoku. […] Osaka Prefectural Government claimed that no local doctors or authorities have received reports of ill health due to debris incinerated in the city’s Maishima area, contradicting the assertion made by the manga’s character Matsui. […] At every stage of the disposal, the radiation level was stable and low enough to be safe, the government said. —CAPTION: [Matsui’s] character portrayed in the manga ‘Oishinbo’ claims that about 800 residents living near an incinerator in the city of Osaka have exhibited symptoms of illnesses caused by radioactive fallout

Kyodo News, May 13, 2014: Citing [an] expert [Oishinbo] said hundreds of people living near an incineration site in the city of Osaka […] experienced nosebleeds or unpleasant symptoms affecting their eyes, throats and skin.

See also: Report from Japan: Radioactive fallout around Fukushima incineration plant being hidden — “It’s very odd” (VIDEOS)

“Extremely Unjust”: Osaka professor arrested — Publicly opposed burning radioactive debris

Doctor: 300 times more radiation released to atmosphere when burning debris than gov’t claims

The Atlantic: Is gov’t trying to contaminate every region of Japan by burning radioactive debris? “If everyone is ‘contaminated,’ then, in a relative sense, no one is”

From 2012: Fukushima will start burning radioactive waste — 100,000 Bq/kg to be incinerated

Watch — Gundersen: Lots of serious ramifications from burning of nuclear waste — We are basically creating Fukushima all over again (VIDEO)

May 15, 2014 Posted by | Fukushima 2014, health, Japan | 1 Comment

Militarising the Pacific – “island people are better radiation test subjects than mice are”

In a 1956 Atomic Energy Commission meeting, Merril Eisenbud, director of the AEC Health and Safety Laboratory, described the Marshallese thus: “While it is true that these people do not live, I would say, the way Westerners do, civilized people, it is nevertheless also true that these people are more like us than the mice.”.

Bikini-atom-bomb
weapons1The Militarized Pacific: An Anniversary Without End  14 May 2014  By Jon Letman, Truthout | Op-Ed  March 1, the 60th anniversary of the Castle Bravo test – a nuclear detonation over a thousand times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima – has come and gone. Predictably, major decadal events, like a 15-megaton explosion over a Micronesian atoll, garner fleeting attention, but it’s all the days between the anniversaries that tell the real story of those who live with the impacts.

For the people of the Marshall Islands, where Enewetak, Bikini and neighboring atolls were irradiated and rendered uninhabitable by 67 nuclear tests between 1946 and 1958, the brief anniversary recognition only underscores what little attention the Marshallese and, in a broader sense, millions of peoples of the Asia-Pacific are given by the US government and public……..

places like the US-backed naval base being built on South Korea’s Jeju island and the enormous military testing and training ranges in the Northern Mariana Islands (larger than much of the western United States) receive almost no attention. Names like Pagan, Rongelap and Kwajalein are scarcely known in the country that uses these islands for its own military testing……..

increased levels and types of cancers in the Marshall Islands, based on National Cancer Institute (NCI) research and firsthand accounts by Marshallese, are the result of nuclear testing. Continue reading →

May 15, 2014 Posted by | OCEANIA, radiation, USA, weapons and war | 1 Comment

Deformities in Semipalatinsk area due to radiation from nuclear bomb testing

HBO: ‘Genetic passports’ for major population exposed to nuclear radiation? “It has deformed their genes, sorry it’s a bit of a bummer” — Twins attached by organs growing outside body, ’1-eyed cyclops’, babies with giant heads… “they respond to the people around them” (GRAPHIC PHOTOS & VIDEO) http://enenews.com/hbo-genetic-passports-major-population-exposed-nuclear-radiation-deformed-genes-sorry-bit-bummer-twins-attached-organs-growing-body-one-eyed-cyclops-babies-heads-photos-video

PVICE, by Thomas Morton, May 4, 2014: “How Fucked Are Nukes? […] way worse than Hollywood has the special effects to depict. A lot of mainstream accounts […] soft-pedal the body horror that acute radiation poisoning causes […] eyewitness testimony from Robert Jay Lifton’s Hiroshima classic Death in Life: […] “at a glance you couldn’t tell whether you were looking at them from in front or in back […] very young girls, not only with their clothes torn off but with their skin peeled off as well. My immediate thought was that this was like the hell I had always read about.” […] If you haven’t already gone to the bathroom to slit your wrists […] VICE on HBO covers the second major population intentionally exposed to atomic radiation—the Kazakhs living around the Semipalatinsk Testing Polygon, where the Soviet Union tested 456 nuclear bombs.

While they weren’t close enough to the blasts to experience the sort of immediate deformities [suffered by the Japanese –] It deformed their genes. Sorry it’s a bit of a bummer.”

Watch the part of the HBO broadcast here

See also: Japan Professor: I believe airborne release of cesium-137 from Fukushima equals 400 to 500 Hiroshima nuclear bombs — Another 400 to 500 bombs worth has already flowed into Pacific Ocean (VIDEO)

May 14, 2014 Posted by | children, Kazakhstan | Leave a comment

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