Thursday, April 4, 2019

Cesium-137 in Fukushima Fish, Alaskan Currents and our Babies' Hearts?


Radioactive cesium in Fukushima fish detected above allowable level:
Radioactive cesium above legal limit detected in fish caught off Fukushima. (2019, Feb2) The Japan Times, https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/02/02/national/science-health/limit-cesium-detected-fish-caught-off-fukushima/#.XIky66B7nFI

FUKUSHIMA - Radioactive cesium exceeding the state limit has been detected in fish caught off Fukushima Prefecture for the first time in about four years, the prefecture’s fisheries cooperatives association has said. The cesium level of 161 becquerels per kilogram, exceeding the limit of 100, was detected in a skate, a type of ray, caught at a depth of 62 meters during test fishing Thursday.

Fukushima's cesium is also being found in ("trace amounts") Alaska's Bering Strait, although it is being "naturalized" in news media accounts, as illustrated below:
Fukushima contaminants found in Alaska’s Bering Strait. The Asahi Shimbun, www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201903280045.html
Analysis of seawater collected last year near St. Lawrence Island revealed a slight elevation in levels of radioactive cesium-137 attributable to the Fukushima disaster, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Sea Grant program said. "This is the northern edge of the plume," said Gay Sheffield, a Sea Grant marine advisory agent based in the Bering Sea town of Nome, Alaska. The newly detected Fukushima radiation was minute. The level of cesium-137, a byproduct of nuclear fission, in seawater was just four-tenths as high as traces of the isotope naturally found in the Pacific Ocean.

Cesium-137 is NOT naturally found in the Pacific Ocean. It is there from radioactive contamination from activities ranging from nuclear explosions to dumping of radioactive waste.

Cesium 137 according to Wikipedia:
Caesium-137 (137 55Cs), or radiocaesium, is a radioactive isotope of caesium which is formed as one of the more common fission products by the nuclear fission of uranium-235 and other fissionable isotopes in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. It is among the most problematic of the short-to-medium-lifetime fission products because it easily moves and spreads in nature due to the high water solubility of caesium's most common chemical compounds, which are salts.

Cesium-137 was linked to congenital heart defects after Chernobyl by Dr. Yuri Bandazhevsky. His findings are available here: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b44b/7c443aebf49e0ca052356c5210d294aee5ca.pdf

Today, neonatal surgery for complex congenital heart disease remains high after Fukushima. Could it be there is cesium-137 in our babies' hearts?
Neonatal surgeries for complex congenital heart disease rise, remain high after Fukushima. (Reuters Health News | March 22, 2019 ). https://www.mdlinx.com/cardiology/top-medical-news/article/2019/03/22/7561551

Following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, complex congenital heart disease (CHD) operations increased in neonates, and the number of operations remain high despite declining air levels of radiation, researchers say.  
I hope the answer is no, but I fear yes may be more true.

We tell ourselves that "trace" amounts of even the most toxic pollutants are safe because we refuse to recognize the fundamental precarity and interconnectedness of life, especially in processes of early development.

Nuclear power is akin to the "One Ring" that will rule them all in that seduces through power and corrupts through degradation of life's vital energies.