Safecast’s revolution in radiation data collection
Safecast’s software and devices are all open source, and anyone can use the data. Franken says it’s being used by researchers around the world and even by the government in some Japanese cities.
you can tie specific medical symptoms to radiation levels.”
In Japan, Citizen Radiation-Tracking Project Goes Big Time, PRI’s The World, BY CATHERINE WINTER ⋅ MAY 21, 2013 ⋅ON A SUNNY SPRING MORNING JUST OUTSIDE TOKYO, JOE MOROSS HOOKS A RADIATION DETECTOR OUTSIDE THE BACK WINDOW OF A LITTLE RED CAR. HE LOOKS AT A MAP OF THE AREA ON HIS LAPTOP COMPUTER, TRYING TO FIND A ROUTE HE HASN’T DRIVEN BEFORE, SO HE CAN TAKE NEW RADIATION READINGS.
“We want to cover every street so people who look at our maps can drill down and zoom in and find out what the measurement is right in front of their house,” Moross says.
Moross is taking measurements for Safecast. Since the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daichi two years ago, volunteers like him have been driving around Japan, testing radiation and adding their readings to online maps.
When The World last checked in on Safecast, in May of 2011, the group had just formed and had posted a handful of radiation measurements.
Now, Safecast volunteers have taken close to 10 million separate readings……. Continue reading
System for tracking patients’ medical radiation
New Tracking of a Patient’s Radiation Exposure , WSJ, By LAURA LANDRO, 21 May 13, During a four-week hospital stay, 29-year-old Josh Page had so many CT scans that he lost track, kidding with his doctor about how much radiation he was exposed to—though he admits he had “no clue.” Now, Intermountain Healthcare, where he was treated for an inflammation of the pancreas and underwent surgery in February, is keeping track for him.
The Salt Lake City-based nonprofit group of 22 hospitals and 185 clinics is launching the first major system of its kind to measure and report patients’ cumulative medical radiation exposure from tests that deliver the highest amount of radiation. This includes CT scans, nuclear medicine scans and interventional radiology exams for the heart. In addition to educating doctors and patients about the risks and benefits of medical radiation, Intermountain will allow them to access their exposure data via its electronic health record.
While the benefits of tests and procedures usually outweigh the slightly increased cancer risk from exposure due to radiation, “the risks should be considered before these imaging tests are performed,” says Keith White, medical director of Intermountain’s Imaging Services. This is particularly true for younger patients, who have a higher risk because they live long enough to see long-term effects…… Federal data shows that in 2006, Americans received seven times more radiation exposure than in the 1980s, Continue reading
Fishermen testing fish for radiation, in South Fukushima waters
Fishermen net fish in Fukushima waters to measure radiation levels
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/recovery/AJ201305210005 May 21, 2013 By HIROSHI KAWAI/ Staff Writer
A fishing vessel from Fukushima Prefecture caught fish in waters south
of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant on May 20 to test
them for levels of radiation contamination, as local fishing
cooperatives hope to soon resume fishing in the area.
The No. 12 Akira Maru belonging to the Iwaki fishermen’s cooperative
trawled plenty of flatfish and other species.
Due to ocean currents, the concentration of radioactive materials has
been found to be higher in waters to the south of the plant, than to
the north.
Of the Akira Maru’s catch, nine species of fish were kept as samples
to measure radiation levels in them. The fishermen tested about 10
kilograms of each type and threw the rest back into the sea.
“It feels hollow to have to throw fish back into the sea, considering
that they could fetch high prices,” Captain Akiyoshi Abe said.
Before the nuclear accident triggered by the Great East Japan
Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, waters off the prefecture were
known as a good fishing area where more than 100 species could be
caught.
Many local fisheries cooperatives have had to suspend operations since
the nuclear accident.
Japanese authorities ignore radiation levels in Tokyo river eels
Local governments ignore cesium detection in Tokyo river eels, Asahi Shimbun May 17, 2013 By YUSUKE FUKUI/ Staff Writer Tokyo and Chiba local governments took no action for nearly two months after being informed that radioactive cesium had been detected in eels caught in a boundary river between the two prefectures.
Officials of both governments said no independent study was conducted because the eels were not caught by professional fishermen intending to sell the catch.
The detection of the cesium was also not publicized. On March 9, a 47-year-old self-employed woman caught an eel from the Edogawa river in Tokyo’s Katsushika Ward. Concerned about reports that cesium had accumulated downstream in the river, she sent the eel to Hideo Yamazaki, a professor of environmental analysis at Kinki University in Osaka Prefecture. Using a germanium semiconductor detector, Yamazaki found that the eel had 147.5 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram, higher than the central government standard of 100 becquerels.
Yamazaki reported his finding to the Fisheries Agency in late March because he felt there was a need for an official investigation to back up his finding as well as further studies to look into the effects on other fish.
Although the Fisheries Agency informed both the Tokyo metropolitan and Chiba prefectural governments about the finding, neither had conducted an official study as of May 16.
An official with the Tokyo metropolitan government’s fisheries division said, “Basically, only fish that enter the distribution network is subject to studies. The eel fishing season also does not start until summer.”….. Yamazaki conducted further studies on four eels caught by the same woman in April and May in the Edogawa river. The eels had cesium levels between 97.4 becquerels and 129.6 becquerels per kilogram, with three of the eels having cesium levels exceeding the central government standard….. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201305170079
Fukushima to California – the path of nuclear radiation along Latitude 40
Study: Concentrated Fukushima radioactive plume staying on narrow path toward U.S. — Moving with surface water along 40 N — Same latitude as Northern California(MAP) http://enenews.com/study-concentrated-fukushima-radioactive-plume-staying-along-narrow-path-moving-surface-water-along-40-same-latitude-northern-california-map
Title: Surface pathway of radioactive plume of TEPCO Fukushima NPP1 released 134Cs and 137Cs
Source: Biogeosciences
Authors: M. Aoyama, M. Uematsu, D. Tsumune, and Y. Hamajima
Date: May 7, 2013
[…] The main body of radioactive surface plume of which activity exceeded 10 Bq m−3 travelled along 40° N and reached the International Date Line on March 2012, one year after the accident. A distinct feature of the radioactive plume was that it stayed confined along 40° N when the plume reached the International Date Line. […]
A distinct feature of the radioactive plume was that it stayed confined along 40 N when the plume reached the International Date Line, as stated in Sect. 3.2. The radioactive plume travelled 1800 km (from 160 E to 178 E) for 270 days (9 months) (Fig. 5); therefore, an average zonal speed (u) of the surface radioactive plume was calculated to be about 8 cm s−1 which was consistent with the speed of the reported surface current of 4–16 cm s−1 in the region (Maximenko et al., 2009). […]
We can also assume that the Fukushima radioactive plume moved with surface water […]
Full study here
The Japan Nuclear Crowd Map reveals local radiation levels
ECS researchers at Southampton University develop new tool to provide radiation monitoring in Japan http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/news/4237 17 May 13, People living in Japan after the Fukushima nuclear disaster can find out the radiation level in their area thanks a new tool designed by a team of researchers from the ECS research group Agents, Interaction and Complexity Group (AIC). Continue reading
Good news- radiation type scanners replaced by safe “millimetre wave” airport scanners
The reporting here didn’t show much knowledge about radiation, more’s the pity. Because this is a good news item. The new “millimetre wave” scanners, (at left) using sound waves, do not pose the radiation danger that did exist in using the “backscatter” method of airport scanning.
A pity that the mainstream media does not seem to bother informig itself, or the public, about
the differences between types of radiation. A great pity, because ionising radiation [as in ‘backscatter’ – at right) is a proven cause of cell damage – leading to mutations, cancer, other diseases, birth deformities, and inherited genetic instability. Christina Macpherson
Video New Airport Scanners Reduce Radiation Risk, TSA Says KTLA by Micah Ohlman. 17 May 13 “…..The TSA says that the new millimeter-wave scanners can not only catch the bad guys better, but the radiation emitted is well below safety standards.
So what can you expect? Ticket holders still have to “assume the position” like the old backscatter machines.
But the new machines don’t use X-ray, but rather radio-frequency waves that are considered safer….”
THE ONGOING THREAT OF FUKUSHIMA FALLOUT
WHAT ABOUT THE ONGOING THREAT OF FUKUSHIMA FALLOUT ?, Veterans Today, 14 May 13 The Washington Blog posed that same question on April 13, 2013 ~ Is Fukushima Leaking … Or Are the Reactors Wholly Uncontained?
“You may have heard that Tepco ~ the operator of the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plants ~ announced alarge leak of radioactive water….. You may have heard that the cooling system in the spent fuel pools at Fukushima has failed for a second time in a month.
This is newsworthy stuff … but completely misses the big picture. Associated Press notes: ” Experts suspect a continuous leak into the ocean through an underground water system, citing high levels of contamination in fish caught in waters just off the plant. (Tepco graphics of the Fukushima plants even appear to show water directly flowing from the plant to the ocean. And see this.) In fact, Japanese experts say that Fukushima is currently releasing up to 93 billion becquerels of radioactive cesium into the ocean each day. ”
How much radiation is that? Continue reading
Geiger counter shows higher radiation in ground, less in the air – Japan
Top Talk Show: Ever seen those Geiger counter videos from Japan? Fascinating stuff — “Really dangerous levels and all these people are living there“ (VIDEO)http://enenews.com/top-talk-show-you-ever-seen-those-geiger-counter-videos-from-japan-fascinating-stuff-really-dangerous-levels-and-all-these-people-are-living-there-video
Title: Bert Kreischer « Joe Rogan
Source: Joe Rogan Experience
Date: May 13, 2013
*Warning: Not safe for work
At 1:58:15 in
Joe Rogan: You ever seen those Geiger counter videos? Really fascinating stuff.
There’s a completely different reading when you’re holding it up in the air as opposed when you put it down on the ground.
When it touches the ground — they show safe levels in the air — when they touch it down on the ground, this one guy on his Geiger counter, it’s going off man. It’s reaching these really dangerous levels and all these people are living there.
Watch the broadcast here
See also from today: Watch: Mystery black substance detected in Japan with extreme radioactivity levels — Over 170,000 CPM (VIDEO)
Sun’s ultraviolet radiation a threat to young eyes
A latest study by the Vision Council in the US found UV radiation was often recognised as the culprit for sunburns and skin cancer but most people did not realise its damaging impact on the eye. It said this left many vulnerable to short-term and long-term health problems such as photokeratitis, cataracts, age-related macular degeneration and cancer of the eye and surrounding skin.
The Council’s newly released 2013 study found that 40 per cent of US adults still did not wear sunglasses while outside. The study found 28.5 per cent did not wear sunglasses to protect their eyes from the sun, a figure that rose to 32.9 per cent for men but was lower among women.
It said: ‘Sadly, these unsafe habits are being passed on to younger generations. Over half of parents do not utilise sunglasses to protect their children’s eyes from UV exposure, opening the door for life-long damage.’
The Council advised that individuals could decrease their exposure by taking extra precautions between 10am and 4pm, when the sun is closest to the Earth and UV radiation is most intense. Researchers also warned recent studies showed the eyes receive double the amount of UV in the early morning and late afternoon.
It added that most contact lenses blocked UV rays, but since contact lenses did not cover the entire eye, protective sunwear was still necessary.
A case study was documented of CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper, who was left temporarily blinded with photokeratitis for nearly two days, as a result of UV reflected from open water. Ski slopes also presented this reflection risk, the Council added.
Further research on UV will be shared at a conference hosted by the European Sunglass Association (ESA) and the Vision Council following their merger deal last year. Coverage from the event, taking place on May 23 and 24 at the Marriott Praia D’el Rey in Portugal, will appear in Optician later this month.
Itemising radiation experiments on people by USA government
Humans Used For Radiation Experiments: A Shameful Chapter in US History http://www.citywatchla.com/4box-right/5005-humans-used-for-radiation-experiments-a-shameful-chapter-in-us-history EXPOSE REVISITED 2 May 13, – This year marks the 20th anniversary of the declassification of top-secret studies, the “Human Radiation Experiments,” done over a period of 30 years, in which the US conducted radiation experiments on as many as 20,000 vulnerable US citizens.
Victims included civilians, prison inmates, federal workers, hospital patients, pregnant women, infants, developmentally disabled children and military personnel — most of them powerless, poor, sick, elderly or terminally ill. Eileen Welsome’s 1999 exposé The Plutonium Files: America’s Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War details “the unspeakable scientific trials that reduced thousands of men, women, and even children to nameless specimens.”
The program employed industry and academic scientists who used their hapless patients or wards to see the immediate and short-term effects of radioactive contamination — with everything from plutonium to radioactive arsenic. The human subjects were mostly poisoned without their knowledge or consent. Continue reading
Discrimination as well as radiation, for Fukushima’s children
Fukushima activist fights fear and discrimination based on radiation, Japan Times, BY MIZUHO AOKI MAY 9, 2013 Sachiko Banba aches for children in Fukushima Prefecture, who worry whether they can lead a normal life.
“Three frequently asked questions from children are whether they are OK to live in Fukushima after they get married, whether they can give birth to a baby, and whether their baby will be healthy,” said Banba, 52, who runs a cram school in Minamisoma, Fukushima, less than 30 km from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
Although tens of thousands of people fled their homes in Fukushima Prefecture following the March 2011 reactor meltdowns, many, including children, still remain. Most heartbreaking to Banba is the discrimination they face based on ignorance, and the likelihood it will follow them the rest of their lives.
Children catch snatches of the adult debates over the health risks of radiation exposure, and sense something bad might happen.“It’s due to people’s ignorance. There are still people who think radiation is something contagious,” Banba said. “By gaining correct knowledge, I hope children in Fukushima will be able to talk about radiation (exposure) when they are asked about it.”
Since last year, Banba and Dr. Masaharu Tsubokura have hosted more than 40 radiation study sessions for 1,500 children and adults, supplying people with the necessary information to counter the arguments of those who would discriminate against them.
Many locals have tales to tell, such as the Fukushima woman whose engagement was broken off due to the strong opposition of her fiance’s family.
Banba herself has felt the sting of intolerance many times outside the prefecture…..
citizens and medical experts like Tsubokura, who has been checking Minamisoma residents’ internal radiation exposure levels at Minamisoma Municipal General Hospital for nearly two years, are also holding study sessions in Fukushima and other prefectures to pass on basic knowledge as well as the latest findings.
Tsubokura said people outside Fukushima know little about radioactive materials. About half his audience at a lecture in Nagoya didn’t know that radioactive substances from Fukushima No. 1 fell to Earth in rain.
“Many thought a beam was emitted directly from the power plant,” Tsubokura said.
Similar discrimination was seen after the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many people believed survivors were contagious and that marrying hibakusha or their descendants would produce babies with birth defects.
According to a 2008 survey of about 27,000 A-bomb survivors conducted by the city of Hiroshima, the main source of their emotional suffering after their exposure to radioactive “black rain” was discrimination, prejudice and anxiety over long-term health effects.
Even more than 60 years later, they are still haunted by discrimination, said Terumi Tanaka, secretary general of Nihon Hidankyo, an atomic bomb victims’ organization. Speaking at the Japan National Press Club in August 2011, he said the issue of radiation exposure is raised even today when their grandchildren try to marry…… http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/05/09/national/fukushima-activist-fights-fear-and-discrimination-based-on-radiation/#.UYwbmKJwpLs
Radiation risks to health staff from nuclear medical imaging
What to do when the patient is hot http://www.theheart.org/article/1535927.do 7 May 13, MAY 7, 2013 Shelley Wood Boston, MA – Patients who’ve had a nuclear imaging study with radioactive tracers become, themselves, radiation emitters—something that hospital staff should keep in mind, say researchers in a new analysis trying to quantify that risk. Their research letter is published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology [1]. Continue reading
Still the danger of radioactive scrap metal in Delhi
Delhi still not radiation ready Darpan Singh, Hindustan Times New Delhi, May 08, 2013 Three years after a man was killed in India’s first case of radiation exposure at the Mayapuri scrap market in West Delhi, there is still a big question mark on the preparedness to prevent such disasters.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) will on Wednesday hear a petition, which has claimed the mechanism to detect radiation is withering away. There is no screening of scrap before it finds its way to the market. The National Disaster Management Authority is still in the process of procuring devices, to be given to the police, to detect radiation.
Tomatoes, deformed by Fukushima radiation, on sale in Japan
Fukushima: Japan sells radiation-mutated tomatoes http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/news/headline_news/2013/05/04/5858.html# 04 MAY 2013 BY RAYMOND Lori Mochizuki, who edits Fukushima-Diary.com, reports that capitalists in Japan are now selling clearly discernible radiation contaminated and genetically mutated tomatoes. Mr. Mochizuki reports that such mutated plants are being increasingly found all over Japan, as the capitalist try to draw our attention elsewhere.
“I didn’t buy them.” They look like the mutated tomato on this article. The labels of origin read “Kumamoto”, in Kyushu.
Capitalists in Japan have apparently become so bold that they now seek to make money from tomatoes not fit to be eaten by human or animal alike, as their achon confederates in America and elsewhere seek to cover-up their negligent response to the on-going and worsening Fukushima crisis.
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