Friday, January 31, 2014

SAVE THE CHILDREN OF NORTH EAST JAPAN


I found a troubling article at The Mainichi about 'problem behaviors' in preschool children, including dizziness, nausea, headaches.

The behaviors were identified by a survey using the internationally recognized Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). The survey was conducted in Miyako, Rikuzentakata and Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture; Kesennuma in Miyagi Prefecture; and Fukushima, Iwaki, Minamisoma and Tomioka in Fukushima Prefecture:

1 in 4 disaster-hit children needs mental care for problem behavior: study http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20140127p2a00m0na013000c.html

[Excerpt]…The survey covered 178 children and their parents and guardians who had been enrolled in classes for 3- to 5-year-old children at nursery schools in the three prefectures on March 11, 2011, when the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami struck the region, and who agreed to be surveyed. They underwent questionnaires and interviews between September 2012 and June 2013....

...As a result, 25.9 percent of children in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures were diagnosed as being in need of medical care because of reasons including the loss of their friends to the disaster, partial collapse of their homes, witnessing the oncoming tsunami, and separation from their parents. In Mie Prefecture, only 8.5 percent of children -- or one-third the figure in disaster-hit prefectures -- were diagnosed as being in such need of medical care.

Specifically, children in disaster-hit regions suffered from dizziness, nausea, headaches, swearing and reticence, among other symptoms. If left as they were, they are likely to suffer from learning and development disorders, affecting their access to higher education and employment, according to experts....[end]


Majia here: swearing and reticence might be a function of psycho-social stress factors, but dizziness, nausea and headaches?

Is the world going to simply sit by and let the children of North East Japan be poisoned through inhalation and ingestion of fallout?

Fallout is in the air in northern Japan. It is heavy in the soil. It is in the fresh surface water and aquifers. It is in the ocean and her life. It is everywhere and it is growing vaster and denser every day as the radionuclides in damaged fuel are freed to circulate widely.

The children can still be saved by evacuating them from all areas measuring in excess of 1 millisievert a year. They've already had their lifetime dose.

Instead, they are being forced by lack of economic support to live in areas with annual levels of 20 millisieverts, which will be measured by badges acknowledged to be an inefficient measure of background radiation and a completely useless measure for gauging internal exposure.

Efforts have been made to evacuate children from highly contaminated areas. Parents in Japan and anti-nuclear activists joined forces last year, forming ‘The Fukushima Collective Evacuation Trial Team,’ to back a lawsuit suiting for government sponsored evacuation of children from the city of Koriyama. On April 24, 2013 the Sendai High Court handed down its ruling that the city of Koriyama had no legal responsibility to evacuate children at compulsory elementary schools and junior-high schools despite court-acknowledged radiation levels in the city exceeding levels deemed safe prior to the disaster. The court denied government responsibility for evacuations, shifting responsibility to parents.[i]

The Fukushima Collective Evacuation Trial Team contested the judge’s decision, arguing that it shifted all responsibility for risk to the victims of the disaster.[ii] Responsibility for radiation safety is placed primarily on Japanese citizens despite legislation aimed at delegating responsibility for de-contamination. It appears from the ruling of the Sendai high court that cities have no legal responsibility for ensuring removing residents at risk from contamination, although they are responsible for clean-up outside of the Special Decontamination Area.

I made a public plea for evacuation over a year ago here.
 
There is no time to waste now. We MUST demand a global response.



[i]            AP (2013, April 25), Japan court rejects demand to evacuate Fukushima children. The Asahi Shmbun, http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201304250125



4 comments:

  1. Evidence that ionizing radiation can cause dizziness

    Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo in Irradiated Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Survivors Shaoyan Feng,1 Yunping Fan,1 Liqing Guo,1 Zibin Liang,2 and Jiaoping Mi1

    Purpose. It has been assumed that postirradiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients are prone to benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). The purpose of this study was to better understand this clinical entity. Materials and Methods. From September 2003 to June 2011, we conducted a retrospective study of 11 irradiated NPC patients with BPPV in our institute. During the same period, 11 irradiated NPC patients without BPPV were randomly selected and enrolled as the control group. All medical records of these patients were evaluated. Results. The risk of BPPV rises significantly when the patient undergoes radiotherapy (RT) twice and the threshold radiation dose is >120 Gy ( ). The occurrence of postirradiated BPPV was significantly related to incidences of otitis media and sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) ( and 0.009, resp.). All the patients responded well to repositioning maneuvers. Conclusion. A second course of RT, postirradiated otitis media, or SNHL is associated with the potential risk of radiation-induced BPPV. Repositioning maneuvers were safe and effective for relief of this disease.
    ISRN Otolaryngology Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 698575, 5 pages
    http://www.hindawi.com/isrn/otolaryngology/2013/698575/

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  2. "Is the world going to simply sit by and let the children of North East Japan be poisoned through inhalation and ingestion of fallout?"

    Of course you know the answer to that question Majia.

    First, the world does not know the problem, because the media is controlled; because scientific data is manipulated; and because the government is complicit in the cover up.

    And second: sad as it may be, the die is cast on these children. Partially because the terrible natural disaster, which would undoubtedly lead to emotional disaster, and top that off with unknown doses of potentially lethal substance that you cannot see or smell.

    Can you imagine the emotional toll on a child who lived through the terrible earthquake and tsunami and whatever destruction it presented - possibly lost family members or parents - and then was faced with displacement because of the nuclear accident; or was not displaced but should have been? Their parents are racked with the same emotional and radiation induced physical turmoil. Can you imagine they are able to be good parents? Can you imagine anyone living in the area has the ability to look to a bright future? They have been in survival mode for three years now.

    Unfortunately the way of the world can be brutal. As it has been since the dawn of man, entire populations can be wiped out due to a natural disaster, and some natural disasters are so large that even powerful governments cannot make a difference.

    The maddening thing about this situation is of course that the governments have in this case, as in every other nuclear disaster, to cover up the risks rather than communicate them, and let people decide for themselves what they will do. Even if the governments absolve themselves of financial responsibility, they still should give an accurate picture of risk.

    However Majia, there is another factor here. I believe even if people know the risk is significant, they still will freeze in place, not know what to do. You see humans get comfortable with their situation, and they don't like change.

    Case in point: Both you and I know there is significant risk to ourselves and our families from Fukushima. I assume you have not moved yourself and your family away from the danger. Neither have I. We are ones who are not in the dark, and yet we haven't acted.

    Why? Well I certainly cannot speak for yourself, but I can speak for myself. I no longer worry about Fuku constantly, but I still know it is progressing. However, that bit of uncertainty as to whether things are really as bad as I think they are, leaves me powerless to walk away from my current life, and force my children and grandchildren to walk from theirs (which I probably do not have the power to do). I would have to walk away from everything in my life I have built, and start over. When faced with total social and economic reset, it is a tremendous personal decision.

    I think you can assume the decision is the same for those in Northern Japan. By the time the threat is a known quantity, the window of opportunity to do something about it is closed.

    James

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  3. Yes I understand you James.

    I really see myself as a chronicler of a great unfolding.

    I hope that we can halt the collapse of our eco-system and genome before its too late. But, I'm not optimistic, but I'd rather ring the bell than fade slowly away.

    :)

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  4. Peace to you both..and the children and people of the world and especially those in Japan..☮♥ It truly has been a wonderful life and now life is broken..love to you all

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