Tokyo parents group expresses alarm at radioactivity levels

Japan Times reports that, after undertaking their own radiation monitoring of their east Tokyo area called Koto, a parents group called "No! Hoshano Koto Kodomo Mamoru Kai" ("No! Radioactivity — The Group to Save Children in Koto"), are alarmed that their children could be exposed to 175 millirem per year. While this is significantly less than the contamination levels in Fukushima Prefecture nearer the wrecked Daiichi nuclear power plant, it is still much higher than the 100 millirem per year standard for children the Japanese federal Ministry of Education has said it would enforce even in Fukushima -- after having been forced, by large protests comprised of Fukushima parents surrounding its ministry building, to back down from a 20 fold increase in "allowable" radiation limits in schoolyards which it attempted to enact as the new school year approached several weeks ago. This will necessitate removal of radioactively contaminated top soil at school yards and playgrounds, to try to lower the radiation doses children are being exposed to. Where the contaminated soil is then dumped is yet another concern.