11 Mar Mary Olson of the Nuclear Information Resource Center and Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates tour Japan five years after the meltdowns.
As the fifth anniversary of the onset of the continuing Fukushima nuclear disaster approaches, Mary Olson, director of NIRS Southeast office in Asheville, NC and Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates are on a five-week speaking/listening tour of Japan. Safe Energy is posting Olson’s “tour diary”, continuing with new posts through March 11, the day the disaster began.
Japan Diary 2016: Fukushima Daiichi+5
Mary asks the very important question, “Is radiation more harmful to women?” and finds out that indeed it is. Now she is talking about this discovery with the public, and now in Japan. And she is there to listen as well. This is the diary of her tour.
“It is highly significant (100% difference) in young children, birth to five years where exposure results in cancer, at some point in life, twice as often in girls exposed to ionizing radiation compared to boys exposed in the same age group and radiation level. How do we know? The National Academy of Science printed 60 years of data taken from the horrific events of 1945 when our US government used indiscriminate force (A-Bombs) on cities full of people. From the horror of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki comes the only data set (big) that has both genders and all ages. There are many problems with this data, but from the atomic ashes comes the very important news: we must protect little girls 10 times more than the “Reference Man” currently used in standard-setting. Independent from my analysis, the same finding has been confirmed three times, making it “settled science.” Adult women are also harmed by radiation more than adult men: for every two men who died of cancer after exposure, three women died. To me, even now at 58 years old, 50% is a lot!”
Japan Diary 2016, Fukushima+5 Part 3. People are Sick Now
I met a representative of a service organization that has done interviews with families that were directly exposed when Daiichi 1, 2 and 3 melted down…and by contamination since 2011. When the report comes out, it will say that 80% of the large number of families they have spoken to have health problems NOW. When this report becomes available, NIRS will share it. For now, I will simply say: cancer is not the only harm that comes from radiation exposure.
Japan Diary 2016, Fukushima+5, Part 4. Atomic Radiation is More Harmful to Girls and Women
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