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The News That Matters about the Nuclear Industry Fukushima Chernobyl Mayak Three Mile Island Atomic Testing Radiation Isotope

Nuclear radioactivity risks: iodine, cesium, plutonium, strontium

Health risk from troubled Japan nuclear plant, Reuters, By Mayumi Negishi and Tan Ee Lyn, TOKYO May 6, 2011“……IS SOME RADIATION MORE HARMFUL THAN OTHERS?Yes. Radioactive particles are most harmful when inhaled or ingested, and particles that are easily absorbed and which have longer half-lives can cause more damage to cells and genetic material inside.

When examining radiation from the Fukushima plant, health officials focus especially on Iodine-131. Inside the body of an adult, it has a half-life of 7 days, but it accumulates quickly in the thyroid gland. Children are especially at risk because their thyroids are still developing.Another by-product, Cesium, spreads throughout the body, concentrating in muscle tissue. Cesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years, but inside an adult, the amount will be halved in 90 days.

Strontium and plutonium are rarer by-products of nuclear fission. But if they are ingested, they tend to collect in bones, where they are likely to stay put. Strontium can cause bone cancer. Plutonium is more dangerous when inhaled, increasing the risk of lung cancer……..”Health risk from troubled Japan nuclear plant | Reuters

May 8, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, health | Leave a comment

US doctors say that Japan’s revised radiation rules endanger children

the exposure limit set for school grounds in the area affected by radiation from the crippled nuclear power plant  – 20 millisieverts per year – puts children and pregnant women at an unacceptable risk for cancer.

Japan: Are Kids Being Exposed to Too Much Radiation?, TIME  by KRISTA MAHR , May 3, 2011 , A U.S. medical group has slammed the Japanese government and senior nuclear adviser Toshiso Kosako has tearfully resigned over the levels of radiation exposure Tokyo says are safe for students at elementary and junior high schools in Fukushima prefecture. Continue reading →

May 4, 2011 Posted by | health, Japan | 3 Comments

Physicians, not nuclear physicists, know the facts about radiation

There’s no group better prepared than doctors to stand up to the physicists of the nuclear industry….Physicists had the knowledge to begin the nuclear age. Physicians have the knowledge, credibility and legitimacy to end it.

Unsafe at Any Dose, New York Times, By HELEN CALDICOTT,  April 30, 2011 “………There’s great debate about the number of fatalities following Chernobyl; theInternational Atomic Energy Agency has predicted that there will be only about 4,000 deaths from cancer, but a 2009 report published by the New York Academy of Sciencessays that almost one million people have already perished from cancer and other diseases. The high doses of radiation caused so many miscarriages that we will never know the number of genetically damaged fetuses that did not come to term. (And both Belarus and Ukraine have group homes full of deformed children.) Continue reading →

May 2, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, health, spinbuster | Leave a comment

Japan makes convenient new rules on “acceptable” nuclear radiation

it has the effect of legalizing illness and deaths from nuclear radiation, or at least the state’s responsibility for them…..the state’s concern appears to be less the health of employees and more the cost of caring for nuclear victims.

Dying for TEPCO? Fukushima’s Nuclear Contract Workers, The Asia Pacific Journal , Paul Jobin 28 April 11“……On March 14th, the Ministry of Health and Labor raised the maximum dose for workers to 250 mSv a year, where previously it was set at 100 mSv over 5 years (either 20 mSv a year for five years or 50 mSv for 2 years, which is in itself a strange interpretation of the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection’s guideline stipulating a maximum of 20 mSv a year. Continue reading →

April 28, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011, employment, health, Japan | Leave a comment

Fukushima’s contract workers exposed to radiation

What is clear is that the contract laborers are routinely exposed to the highest level of radiation….the whole system is opaque, thus complicating the procedure for workers who need to apply for occupational hazards compensation.

Dying for TEPCO? Fukushima’s Nuclear Contract Workers, The Asia Pacific Journal , Paul Jobin, 28 April 11, Liquidators recruited by ads In the titanic struggle to bring to closure the dangerous situation at Fukushima Nuclear Plant No1, there are many signs that TEPCO is facing great difficulties in finding workers. At present, there are nearly 700 people at the site. As in ordinary times, workers rotate so as to limit the cumulative dose of radiation inherent in maintenance and cleanup work at the nuclear site. But this time, the risks are greater, and the method of recruitment unusual. Continue reading →

April 28, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011, employment, health, Japan | Leave a comment

Depleted Uranium and veterans’ Gulf War Syndrome

In 1999 doctors from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas presented the results of brain scans performed on victims of the [Gulf War] syndrome showing depleted brain cells in three areas of their brains.

Nuclear War in the Mideast , Subversify, By karlsie, April 22, 2011    “………Depleted uranium weapons were liberally used during the Persian Gulf War, during the bombings by  NATO and the United Nations over the Serbian Republic of Bosnia in September 1995, against Yugoslavia in spring of 1999; in this century, during the attack on Afghanistan and then further in Iraq in 2003.

Their effects have been largely minimized by the deploying governments and the media, but the effects have long-ranging and devastating consequences…… Continue reading →

April 25, 2011 Posted by | depleted uranium, health, USA | Leave a comment

World Health Organisation counts only thyroid cancer in Chernobyl radiationeffects

.independent studies conducted since 1986 in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other countries show that the consequences of exposure to low-level radiation are much more alarming than the global community is willing to accept…”Today, 25 years after Chernobyl, numerous studies in different countries show that the frequency of congenital malformations in children of parents exposed to radiation increased five to seven times,” 

On the Trail of a Deadly Chernobyl Killer, 25 April 2011, The Moscow Times, By Alexandra Odynova “…….Many people diagnosed with radioactive-linked illnesses in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia get insufficient medical help, or none at all.

What’s more, thyroid gland cancer is the only direct consequence of the 1986 disaster recognized by the World Health Organization, which rejects a growing number of independent studies indicating that the aftereffects of protracted exposure to low-level radiation might be much more far-reaching. Continue reading →

April 25, 2011 Posted by | health | 1 Comment

Grim health outlook for Fukushima nuclear cleanup workers

Children born to liquidator families were seriously affected with birth defects and thyroid diseases, including cancer, and loss of intellect. As for other children, based upon the work of multiple researchers, it is estimated that in the heavily contaminated areas of Belarus, only 20 percent of children are considered healthy,

Is the Fukushima nuclear plant breakdown worse than Chernobyl? | San Francisco Bay View, by Janette D. Sherman, M.D., 16 April 11“………Key to understanding effects is the difference between external and internal radiation. While external radiation, as from x-rays, neutron, gamma and cosmic rays, can harm and kill, internal radiation – alpha and beta particles – when absorbed by ingestion and inhalation release damaging energy in direct contact with tissue and cells. Continue reading →

April 16, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011, employment, health, Japan | Leave a comment

Save Japanese nuclear workers by collecting their stem cells

the solution is not perfect, the team admits. High exposure to radiation would also attack cells in the gut, skin or lung — problems a stem cell transplant could not fixYet, with containment and clean-up efforts at the damaged plant expected to drag on for months or even years, Tanimoto and Taniguchi say taking steps to protect the workers’ from future harm is paramount.

Banking stem cells could save Japan nuclear workers By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO   Apr 14, 2011  (Reuters) – Health officials should collect blood from workers at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in case they are accidentally exposed to high levels of radiation and need a stem cell transplant, Japanese researchers said on Thursday. Continue reading →

April 15, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011, health, Japan | Leave a comment

The difference between radiation emitters – external and internal

The grave effects of internal emitters are of the most profound concern at Fukushima. It is inaccurate and misleading to use the term “acceptable levels of external radiation” in assessing internal radiation exposures. To do so, as Monbiot has done, is to propagate inaccuracies and to mislead the public worldwide (not to mention other journalists) who are seeking the truth about radiation’s hazards.

How nuclear apologists mislead the world over radiation George Monbiot and others at best misinform and at worst distort evidence of the dangers of atomic energy   Helen Caldicott * guardian.co.uk,   11 April 2011
1) Mr Monbiot, who is a journalist not a scientist, appears unaware of the difference between external and internal radiation Continue reading →

April 12, 2011 Posted by | - Fukushima 2011, 2 WORLD, health | 1 Comment

America is not ready to deal with a radiation disaster

After a nuclear blast, hospitals probably would fill with trauma patients. Later, others would arrive with acute radiation syndrome, which can take days to manifest and affects multiple organ systems. Without supportive care, about 50 percent of people exposed to 3.5 Gray, a measure of radiation dose, would die. Proper care would almost double the exposure level at which 50 percent would survive, but only a small fraction of American medical professionals have training and expertise in treating radiation injury……Given that not enough beds would be available, hospitals and first responders would have to choose which patients to save.

U.S. health-care system unprepared for major nuclear emergency, officials say   The Washington Post, By Sheri Fink, Thursday, April 7,“………in national surveys, U.S. hospital workers have expressed fears ,… saying they would be less willing to report to work for a radiological or nuclear incident than for other types of emergencies. Continue reading →

April 8, 2011 Posted by | health, USA | Leave a comment

Increase in CT scans for children brings radiation danger

Children are far more vulnerable to radiation exposure than are adults:

  • Children’s organs are more sensitive to radiation than adults’ organs.
  • Children have a longer life expectancy than adults, giving cancer a longer time to form.
  • Radiation settings often may not be set to match children’s body size.
  • Because CT use is increasing, children may eventually receive a higher lifetime dose of medical radiation……..

As Kids’ CT Scans Rise, So Do Radiation WorriesMore Kids Getting More Scans at ERs, but Few See Pediatric Radiologists By Daniel J. DeNoon WebMD Health News Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD April 6, 2011 — Emergency CT scans for kids are on the rise — and so are worries that too many children are getting too much radiation too early in life. Continue reading →

April 7, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, health | Leave a comment

In USA EPA prepares to allow more radioactivity to be called “safe”

The radiation guides called Protective Action Guides or PAGs are protocols for responding to radiological events ranging from nuclear power-plant accidents to dirty bombs.

Drinking water, for example, would have a huge increase in allowable public exposure to radioactivity,

Group warns EPA ready to increase radioactive release guidelines | The Tennessean | tennessean.com, Anne Paine, 17 March 11, EPA is preparing to dramatically increase permissible radioactive releases in drinking water, food and soil after “radiological incidents,” according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.What is termed a guidance that EPA is considering – as opposed to a regulation – does not require public airing before it’s decided upon. Continue reading →

April 5, 2011 Posted by | health, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

The medical story of Chernobyl’s nuclear disaster

the evidence of 52 scientists and estimated the deaths and illnesses to be 93,000 terminal cancers already and perhaps 140,000 more in time. Using other data, the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences declared in 2006 that 212,000 people had died as a direct consequence of Chernobyl.

Nuclear’s green cheerleaders forget Chernobyl at our peril Pundits who downplay the risks of radiation are ignoring the casualities of the past. Fukushima’s meltdown may be worse John Vidalguardian.co.uk,   1 April 2011 Five years ago I visited the still highly contaminated areas of Ukraine and the Belarus border where much of the radioactive plume from Chernobyl descended on 26 April 1986. I challenge chief scientist John Beddington and environmentalists like George Monbiot or any of the pundits now downplaying the risks of radiation to talk to the doctors, the scientists, the mothers, children and villagers who have been left with the consequences of a major nuclear accident. Continue reading →

April 2, 2011 Posted by | health | Leave a comment

Low level radiation increases the probability of cancer

Any increase in radiation increases the probability that you’ll get cancer. And that’s not radiation sickness but that is a much more pervasive effect than acute radiation sickness. When you look at the nuclear fuel cycle you have to look at how much radiation is released in its many different forms and how many people that over their lifetime would have shortened their lifetimes.

VIDEO  Q&A: Japan nuclear crisis ‘getting worse’ : World News Australia on SBS : World News Australia on SBS31 March 2011 Australia won’t be exposed to a substantial increase in radioactivity as Japan’s nuclear crisis unfolds, but the situation at Fukushima’s crippled power plants is getting worse, Continue reading →

April 1, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, health | Leave a comment

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