New petition to protect the children of Fukushima against radioactivity

Aileen Mioko Smith, director of Green Action Japan, has just announced an opportunity for individuals and organizations across the world to sign a petition demanding increased protection for the children of Fukushima against the clear and present danger from the Daiichi nuclear power plant's ongoing releases of hazardous radioactivity. To read and sign the petition, go to the Green Action Fukushima Updates website.

Urine of Fukushima children contaminated with radiation

"Trace amounts of radioactive substances were found in urine samples of all of 10 surveyed children from Fukushima Prefecture in May, where a crippled nuclear power plant is located, a local citizens group and a French nongovernmental organization said Thursday." The Manichi Daily News

Such contamination suggests the children have been contaminated with radioactive substances internally, something Beyond Nuclear and other groups have been concerned about since releases from the accident were first reported.

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.

Is the increase in baby deaths in the northwest U.S. due to Fukushima fallout? How can we find out?

Janette Sherman MD -- an internist and toxicologist and contributing editor of the book, “Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment” -- and Joseph Mangano -- an epidemiologist and executive director of the Radiation and Public Health Project research group -- have asked these questions in an op-ed in the San Francisco Bayview.

"Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment" available online for free

Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment, Dec. 2009, 335 pages, published by the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), is viewable online at no charge in PDF format. Go to: http://www.nyas.org/Publications/Annals/Detail.aspx?cid=f3f3bd16-51ba-4d7b-a086-753f44b3bfc1. Then click on “Full Text.” Then, under “Annals Access,” next to “Nonmembers,” click on “View Annals TOC free.” This will allow you, chapter by chapter, to download and/or view the entire text of the book, for free. As the 25^th commemoration of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe approaches (April 26, 2011), this vital book could not be more timely. It is written by Alexey V. Yablokov of the Center for Russian Environmental Policy in Moscow, Russia; Vassily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V. Nesterenko, of the Institute of Radiation Safety in Minsk, Belarus. Janette D. Sherman-Nevinger of the Environmental Institute at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan, U.S.A. has served as the Consulting Editor. Please help spread the word about this significant scientific study, and its availability online at no charge. Its hardcopy sale price from the NYAS has been a whopping $150 for nonmembers – out of reach, of course, for most all-volunteer anti-nuclear groups. Besides that, NYAS only printed 700 hardcopies of the book to begin with. Now, no copies are left, and it is unknown if more will be printed.