(UPDATED) Confirmed: A Decon Worker in Date City, Fukushima Found Dead in a Company Car at the Site

(UPDATE) Information from the TEPCO/government joint press conference online right now.

A 60-year-old worker doing the decontamination experiment in Shimo-Oguni District of Date City, Fukushima Prefecture was found dead by his co-workers inside the company car at 1:00PM on December 12. An ambulance was called, but he was confirmed dead at 2PM.

The decon work was the first in Shimo-Oguni District in Date City that was planned by the Cabinet Office and was being carried out by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. The government spokesman didn't know the details of the worker, or the details of the decon work being done, or how long the worker had worked before he was found dead. Citizen volunteers were not involved in this decon project, as far as the spokesman knew.

No information about where the worker was from, or whether he had a pre-existing condition. The spokesman did say the government knows the cause of the death, but is talking to the family of the deceased as to whether it is appropriate to disclose the cause.

The spokesman was extremely uncomfortable when he tried to answer the question of the cause of the death. He managed to say the death was not during the decon work.


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The information was apparently disclosed by none other than Yasuhiro Sonoda, Cabinet Office official who drank Fuku-I water.

If a person died suddenly as he/she was doing the decontamination work in the area that produced rice with cesium far exceeding the national provisional safety limit, it has to be either the psychological stress in general and/or the pre-existing illness. Right? Right.

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110 Volunteers and Residents to "Decon" High Radiation Area in Fukushima City

Everybody knows the decon doesn't work, everybody rolls with their fingers crossed. Everybody knows the war is over, everybody knows the good guys lost. But so it goes, and everybody knows.

Or not. Maybe not these 110 volunteers from all over the country with good intentions, who chose to go to one of the very high radiation area (Onami District) in Fukushima City in Fukushima Prefecture to do the decontamination work.

Part of Onami District was "decontaminated" back in August as the "model" decontamination by the cleaning contractors hired by the city. In most locations, the radiation was hardly reduced, and in some locations the radiation after the "decontamination" went up. (Take a look at the results of the decon in August in my Japanese blog post.)

As you see in the photo by Yomiuri Shinbun, the district is in the mountains. Radioactive materials will continue to come from the mountains, no matter how (and how many times) they "decon" the roads and houses.

But Japanese media reports the effort by the volunteers and the residents of Onami District of Fukushima City trying to decontaminate, as if it's a good thing. This one from Yomiuri Shinbun (10/29/2011):

東京電力福島第一原発事故による放射能汚染を受け、福島市大波地区で２９日、ボランティアや住民が参加した除染作業が始まった。

On October 29, decontamination work started in Onami District in Fukushima Prefecture with volunteers and the residents participating.

　同市は市内全域約１１万世帯の除染を計画しており、大波地区ではトップを切って今月中旬から委託業者が作業している。しかし、「行政だけで進めるのは難しい」としてボランティアの協力も求めることにした。

The city plans to decontaminate the entire 110,000 households in the city. Onami District is the first to be decontaminated, and the contractors hired by the city have been working since mid October. However, the city felt it was difficult to proceed only with the government effort, and decided to call for volunteers.

　この日は、市などが募集したボランティア約１１０人と地区住民が参加。担当するのは線量が比較的低い場所で、手袋、マスク、線量計などを受け取った後、業者がすでに高圧洗浄機で屋根や壁を洗い流した住宅や集会所などで、落ち葉拾いや草むしりをしたり、表土が取り除かれた敷地に新たな土を入れたりした。

Today, 110 volunteers that applied for the work and the area residents participated. They would do the work in the locations with relatively low radiation. After fitted with gloves, masks and personal survey meters, they went to the private residences or public meeting halls whose roofs and walls had been already washed by the contractors with pressure washers. They collected dead leaves, removed weeds, and put in new soil where the surface of the soil had been removed.

　ボランティアは首都圏や北海道や岐阜県、大阪府など各地から集まっており、会社の同僚と参加した埼玉県川口市、会社員小池理恵さん（３６）は「住民は自分たちのせいではないのにつらい状況にある。少しでも手伝いができればと思って来た」と話していた。

Volunteers came from from all over Japan including the Tokyo Metropolitan area, Hokkaido, Gifu Prefecture, and Osaka. Rie Koike (age 36) came from Kawaguchi City in Saitama Prefecture with her colleagues at work. She said, "The residents are in a different situation not of their making. I wanted to help them in any way I could."

From what I see in the photo, this "decon" looks no different from the one I posted on October 26, calling the house and yard cleaning "decontamination". The difference is that there are radioactive materials in the soil, on the stones, on the house, everywhere, which the flimsy masks and work gloves do not block.

But the volunteers can feel good about themselves for their hard work, the residents can feel as if they've reduced the radiation, and the city and the prefecture and the national government save a good chunk of money. Win-win for everyone.

I personally think it is unconscionable for the city to call for volunteers who are in no way trained in any kind of proper decontamination technique (if there is such a thing, that is). And to have a woman in the child-bearing age , like the one Yomiuri interviewed, do the work like this is totally beyond me.

(On the other hand, if she is 36, she should have known better by now.)

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