Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Radiation at Thyroid Gland Found in 45% of 1,000 Children Tested in Fukushima

(More information in the new post.)

The Nuclear Safety Commission headed by Haruki "Detarame" Madarame disclosed on July 4 that the test conducted in late March had found 45% of 1,080 children tested in Fukushima Prefecture had internal radiation exposure at thyroid gland, according to Tokyo Shinbun.

3 months, that seems to be the amount of time that these government people must feel safe to disclose what they had known all along. After 3 months, people may forget, and/or people will give up because the disclosure is too late.

The NSC says the levels were low, and there was no need for more detailed evaluation.

If you look at the numbers, though, you may wonder how they came to the conclusion. To them, 100 millisieverts per year body dose equivalent for 1 year old (or 0.2 microsievert/hour) was acceptable because the ICRP says so. Since the highest they found was 50 millisieverts per year body dose equivalent, they concluded there was no need for further testing.

From Tokyo Shinbun (7/5/2011):

東京電力福島第一原発の事故で、国の原子力安全委員会は四日、三月下旬に福島県内の第一原発周辺の市町村に住 む子供約千人を対象に行った放射線被ばく調査で、45%の子供が甲状腺に被ばくしていたことを明らかにした。安全委の加藤重治審議官は「精密検査の必要は ないレベル」と話している。

Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission disclosed on July 4 that the survey done in late March on 1,000 children living near Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant had revealed that 45% of the children were exposed to radiation at the thyroid gland. Commissioner Shigeharu Kato says "The radiation level was not the level that would require more detailed examination."

 調査は国と同県が三月二十六~三十日に、甲状腺被ばくの可能性が高いと予想されたいわき市、川俣町、飯舘村で、ゼロ~十五歳までの千八十人を対象に実施。45%の子供に被ばくが確認された。

The survey was conducted by the national government and the Fukushima prefectural government from March 26 to 30 in Iwaki City, Kawamata-machi, and Iitate-mura, where the authorities expected the high probability of internal radiation exposure at the thyroid gland. 1,080 children aged zero to 15 were tested, and 45% had the internal radiation exposure.

 安全委によると、最高値は毎時〇・一マイクロシーベルト(一歳児の甲状腺被ばく量に換算すると年五〇ミリシーベルト相当)に上ったが、99%は毎 時〇・〇四マイクロシーベルト以下。同様の換算で年二〇ミリシーベルトに相当するが、加藤審議官は四日の記者会見で「換算するには(調査の)精度が粗い。 精密測定が必要な子供はいなかった」と述べた。

According to the NSC, the highest dose was 0.1 microsievert/hour (body dose equivalent of 50 millisieverts per year at thyroid gland for 1 year old). For 99% of the children tested, the dose was 0.04 microsievert/hour or less, which is the dose equivalent of 20 millisieverts per year at thyroid gland for 1 year old. However, Commissioner Kato said in the press conference on July 4, "To consider body dose equivalent, the survey was too coarse. There was no child who need further detailed examination."

  国際放射線防護委員会(ICRP)勧告では、年間一〇〇ミリシーベルトの被ばくで発がんリスクが0・5%高まるとして、同量を緊急時の年間被ばく 限度としている。今回の調査でも一〇〇ミリシーベルトを基準とし、一歳児の甲状腺被ばくの年換算でこれに相当する毎時〇・二マイクロシーベルトを超えた場 合、精密検査をする予定だった。

According to the ICRP recommendation, 100 millisieverts per year will increase the risk of cancer by 0.5%, and that amount is set as the maximum annual exposure limit in a nuclear emergency. In the survey this time, the standard was set at 100 millisieverts, and the detailed examination was to be done if 0.2 microsievert/hour dose was found, which would be the dose equivalent of 100 millisieverts per year at thyroid gland for 1 year old.

 国が国際原子力機関(IAEA)に提出した報告書では、千八十人の子供の甲状腺被ばくを調査したことを記しているが、何割の子供が実際に被ばくしていたかは明らかにしていなかった。

The Japanese government submitted the report to the IAEA which mentioned the survey done on 1,080 children for radiation at the thyroid gland, but the government did not disclose what percentage of the children were actually affected.

So the Japanese government was secretly testing the children in Iitate-mura, as it scoffed at the suggestion by IAEA that the radiation level in the village was very high and evacuation should be considered. All back in late March when it could have made a difference.

According to Tokyo Brown Tabby who read the Japanese post and called up the NSC, the NSC says the data was uploaded in May to the NSC website. So far I haven't managed to locate it. The NSC also says they informed the parents. I hope so.

7 comments:

Fall Out Man! said...

At Chernobyl all personel measuring radiation were told to divide their figures by 5 before recording them. Already we have seen Tepco (or the Japanese government) divided by 1,000 in at least one case. So if this is what they will admit too, well, its a tragedy.

Furthermore, it is disingenuous to only consider cancer increases. Chernobyl proved that every disease possible increases once people are exposed to radiation. (heart, stomach, skin, allergies etc)

The other terrible concern for Japan must be how much radiation reduces fertility. If Japans birth rate drops any further, it will cease to exist as a nation. Tragically, this may be the final nail in Japan's coffin. A calamity inflicted upon the Japanese people by their own leaders. So looking at cancer alone, is playing the consequences of this.

Fertility effects video, absolutely chilling...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hcBGSr9QGk

Tokyo Brown Tabby said...

I found the data. It was uploaded on May 12. Here's the link:
http://www.nsc.go.jp/anzen/shidai/genan2011/genan031/siryo4-3.pdf

When I called up the NSC this afternoon, the person on the phone said it's not that they had withheld this information, but that nobody had asked them about this already-uploaded-data until the reporter from Tokyo Shinbun did at the press conference on July 4.

Anonymous said...

Each chernobyl worker was exposed to 125msv in total and few have been spared from very difficult health conceqences. Therefore I pray for the Children and adults of Fukushima. The most advisable way to lower
the levels of incorporated radionuclides is to
consume only clean food.
I am also very surprised that they did not measure Cesium. I suspect that they do not want us to know the levels. Also these children will be more contaminated comes the harvest season, when they will eat food rich in cesium/plutonium/etc.
Children in Belarus were exposed to lower dose than 1msv/year, much lower. So 100msv seems very high. These children in belarus have a much lower average life expectancy, much higher rate of pre-natal fatalities, cancer...
Belarus has 450,000 case of cancer caused by Chernobyl. Given lower contamination of Belarus compared with Fukushima, I can only pray.
reference: "Chernobyl, consequences of the catastrophe for people and the environment". A.V. Yablokov, V B Nesterenko, A.V. Nesterenko.
The book is now free, on the internet. The study was not sponsored by Pro-Nuclear Industry Activist and reflect the real situation.

Anonymous said...

Time to evacuate Fukushima City. The government of Japan and TEPCO simply do not want to pay compensation for another 200,000 citizens.

Here's a solution. Voluntary evacuation. Inform the government and TEPCO that you are evacuating and that you will bill them later and sue them if they refuse to pay. Organize. Do it on mass. Get the municipal government involved. You have a case for evacuation, they don't.

Don't wait for the government, they don't have your best interests at heart. Leave now.

I already think it is too late, though. TEPCO lies from day one and government inaction may have broken the back of once proud Japan. The cost of recovery and compensation from Fukushima could very well destroy the Japanese economy and, if it doesn't, the law suits and trade embargoes from abroad will.

Someone else here suggested that the SDF incarcerate the bastards and take control of the situation for the people of Japan. I couldn't think of a better solution.

Anonymous said...

Anon above, totally agree.

Bill Tepco/Kan for everything: evacuation costs, relocation costs, medical tests & treatment, monitoring equipment, a lifetime's worth of future health anxieties - and each town in Fukushima Prefecture forms its own citizens' committee to co-ordinate this. With the web, and all the tech we have at our disposal now, it shouldn't be hard. This is a revolutionary situation, demanding revolutionary action.

And why stop there? Sue GE, Westinghouse, every private entity that ever worked on the plant, along with the regulator, NISA, and its parent, METI.

Relocate to Okinawa - imagine the photos of representatives of USMIL there trying to keep Fukushima refugees out.

The SDF needs to get with the whole "defense" element of its mission pronto, but Japan also needs its own People's Liberation Army (China had one, so did Viet Nam) to liberate itself from this heinous, failed, murderous Cold War technology.

Anonymous said...

Robbie001 sez:

With all the averaging and point shaving involved I bet this test means virtually nothing. I am sure there are people who were living in areas subject to heavy rainout that are never going to be tested or acknowledged. The Government knows where to find people with relatively low exposures to salt their "happy sunshine" tests. Until they survey the entire at-risk population they can't make any useful extrapolations. Give it ten years if there isn't a marked increase in thyroid cancer then Japan dodged a depleted uranium bullet.

Another thing to remember is this doesn't include all the other unpredictable chronic low level exposures they will endure over their lifetimes. What happens when your local town decides to burn debris regardless of the Bq/kg level ash it generates because they have no other choice? Are they going to warn you or are they going to try to go about business as usual and ignore it? Is your town going to pay the extra money needed to properly store and handle this waste or are they going to mix it with next years fertilizer for your favorite park? In the years to come the Japanese people are going to learn many of the natural and man-made accumulation mechanisms that make it imperative that nuclear accidents never happen.

People tend to forget but pre-accident radiation exposure levels were incredibly low for a reason; this stuff isn't supposed to be in the environment in any concentrations. Chernobyl already increased the allowable exotic radiation burden in food back in the 1980's and that number was raised from the levels atomic weapons testing originally generated. Before atomic testing there wasn't a concern about exotic radioisotopes invading the food chain in a ubiquitous manner. During the cold war food contamination from N-testing was a matter of national security that was rarely reported but Chernobyl changed all of that.

Now here it is 25 years after Chernobyl and the Fukushima mitigators are looking to increase that burden yet once again and the world nuclear industry is leading the charge through their lapdog "regulators".

With the way things are going it wouldn't surprise me if the other 55% of the children tested came up with numbers too hot to include in the report so they just called them zero.

Violeta Corona said...

I took thyroid natural supplements for eight weeks and had a re-check.I'm very pleased to find out that my thyroid is back to normal.

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