Monday, March 19, 2012

Poisoning Posterity


Enenews is reporting on a Yomiuri article about cesium detected in plankton many, many miles from Fukushima (600 km away!)

The original article can be found at Yomiuri Shimbun Mar. 18, 2012

[excerpt from article] "The amount of cesium detected in the plankton was far below the government's provisional limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram for marine products, according to the team led by Jun Nishikawa, research associate at the University of Tokyo's Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute."

Majia here: Eating fish with 500 becquerels per kilogram for marine products is not safe as radionuclides can bio-accumulate in our tissues and bones.

Previously, Greenpeace criticized the Japanese standards by comparing them to those in the Ukraine: "While the samples are well below the 500 becquerel per kilogram limit set by the authorities, the contaminated seafood still represents a health risk, especially to pregnant women and children, and it is being distributed over a wide area," said Wakao Hanaoka, Greenpeace Japan oceans campaigner. The Japanese standard compares with a 150 becquerel per kilogram limit in Ukraine after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the group said." http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ibANHZtq9mjUNSnZV9UJUA6wYnVQ?docId=CNG.b386ee2679a07087a13a4808dee6523f.311
 
It is worth noting that the US FDA guidelines for acceptable levels of radionuclides in our food (Derived Intervention Levels) are even higher than Japan's. 

The specific Derived Intervention Levels are here: http://www.fda.gov/downloads/NewsEvents/PublicHealthFocus/UCM251056.pdf

The specific “FDA derived intervention level or criterion for each radionuclide group” are as follows “for all components of the diet” for Strontium 90, Iodine 131, Cesium 134 & 137, and Plutonium 238 & 239
Sr-90 160 Bq/kg
I-131 170 Bq/kg
Cs-134 + 137 1200 Bq/kg
Pu-238 + Pus 239 + Am 241 is 2 Bq/kg

What are the health implications of these standards? 

In Nuclear Controversies by Vladimir Tchertkoff (2003), Professor Yury Bandazhevsky (former director of the Medical Institute in Gomel), states that "Over 50 Bq/kg of body weight lead to irreversible lesions in vital organs" http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8746168177815160826#

We are poisoning ourselves and compromising our genetic legacy for future generations

And we are ensuring our (global) population's ignorance about the effects of radiation so that no concerted resistance occurs against a nuclear-energy complex that produces invisible death 
Mainichi: Over 40% of Fukushima children do not understand much about radiation: poll http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120319p2g00m0dm007000c.html

 

For background on how dose has been represented historically and these doses see http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/estimating-dose-and-history-of.html

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