France's ACRO (Association pour le Contrôle de la Radioactivité de l'Ouest) released the result of the urine tests of children in Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, and Saitama Prefectures.
While the radioactive cesium levels in children in Tokyo, Kanagawa and Saitama were below detection levels, children in Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate and Chiba (Kashiwa City) were found with radioactive cesium in their urine.
Most troubling were the results for children outside Fukushima with rather high levels of radioactive cesium. ACRO suspects (I think correctly) that they may come from ingesting contaminated food.
8-year-old boy in Kakuda City, Miyagi: 3.12 becquerels/kg
11-year-old boy in Marumori-cho, Miyagi: 3.03 becquerels/kg
10-year-old boy in Oshu City, Iwate: 2.89 becquerels/kg
4-year-old girl in Kashiwa City, Chiba: 1.47 becquerels/kg
Even in the Aizu region of Fukushima (western third) where the radiation contamination is far less than the rest of Fukushima, a 36-year-old woman was found with 1.84 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium in her urine.
From ACRO's announcement in February 2012:
ACRO continues to face a large demand for urine testing from Japan at the request of local NGOs or individuals and to provide free analysis. This time, the urines come from prefectures that further from the Fukushima NPP.
Results show that urines are still contaminated almost one year after 3/11 and are contaminated in places located as far as Oshu (Iwate Pref.) at about 220 km from the NPP. In Miyagi Pref. that is closer, urines are also contaminated. It is particularly the case in Marumori.
Sample n°11 comes from the same girl from Ichinoseki as the last time. We notice a significant decrease of the contamination. Parents were eating vegetables from the Grandparents’ garden without expecting that they could be contaminated. The urine test provided by ACRO allowed them to change their food habits and protect themselves.
Marumori-cho is located in southern Miyagi. 1600 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium was just found in shiitake mushrooms in Marumori-cho.
The 4-year-old girl in Ichinoseki City in Iwate Prefecture had been found with 4.64 becquerels/kg of cesium in the urine test done by ACRO in September 2011.
Contaminated food could come from home-grown vegetables, or from school lunches in which local produce is used. As far as schools are concerned, it's "safe" as long as the food items are sold in the market, or the food items test below the government safety limit (500 becquerels/kg for radioactive cesium, until April 1, 2012; then 100 becquerels/kg).
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10 comments:
Children in Tokyo aren't having detectable levels in their urine, at least that's one positive?
Well, there are reports of children in Tokyo, Kanagawa and Chiba found with radioactive cesium in urine in other tests by other labs..
I thought it sounded too good to be true.
How many children are being sampled?
These tests are done by private citizens. The government has zero interest in sample-testing anyone.
ACRO has also analyzed house dust collected by vacuum cleaners. See it's homepage. It confirms the systematic contamination of the dwellings. In some houses, level is higher than 8,000 Bq/kg: house dust should be considered as radioactive waste!
http://acro.eu.org
A facebook-friend asked me to post her comment about this:
"This is my friend, Nitta san, who came over today. It was a very sobering wake up call for me, Adam. Though our kids have taken obento since May (not having eaten the school lunches), don't drink milk and I'm pretty strict about not letting them have store bought snacks....kids are kids and whenever they go out to a friend's house, they are offered such junk. My oldest knows to refuse most of it, but she has admitted to eating some, sometimes. And my youngest feels strange being the only one to take mom's homemade baked goods on her school trip for snacks, when everyone else brings the typical junk. This has been the topic in our house today and good ammunition for the case against eating school lunches or anything remotely having the chance of being produced/harvested in the northern half of Japan, I would say. People think they are safe, immune from any effects of this disaster in southwestern Japan. Wrong. Think again. Nitta san was good enough to give me the actual measurements from the urine tests that came out positive for Cesium. The levels are low, but the point is that Cesium is detectable in elelmentary school aged kids who evacuated Fukushima on 3/12/11. I plan on causing even more of an uprising with this posting everywhere I can because the the most criminal part of all is that Nitta san left my house at 12pm this afternoon, on the way to a PTA lunch at her children's school, where the mother's actually sample the school lunches. She had notified the school telling them of the results of her kids' Cesium tests, and they flat out refused to let her report this to the PTA mother's, for fear of creating mass panic!!! The same thing happened to me in Wakaura Elementary school, where I worked for 10 years and was 'close' to staff. While they 'respected my research on what was going into my kids' lunches at school and therefore my reason for opting out and bringing a lunch last May, they warned me not to voice the truth, lest other mother's would freak out. It's time to freak out, everyone!!! This is your children's life at risk, and you are buying into the system which is controlled by money, lies and coverups. Time for a revolution, people!!! The truth will set you free. Needless to say, Nitta san now packs a lunch for her children"
She lives in Wakayama, not far from Osaka.
Mothers - freak out! You really should...
What do these numbers mean? What is the normal level and what amount exceeds safety?
Normal level is really very close to zero, below detection limit.
So how does this number relate to the normal level being zero? "...or the food items test below the government safety limit (500 becquerels/kg for radioactive cesium, until April 1, 2012; then 100 becquerels/kg)." Just trying to get a handle on this spectrum of safe/non-safe
Is there any other kind of Cesium?
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