Friday, October 28, 2011

From a Japanese Blog: Female Junior High Student Died of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage in Ichinoseki, Iwate

The story was first broken by a blog writer in Ichinoseki City in Iwate Prefecture, who runs a extracurricular prep school for students for entrance exams for upper schools. He has been criticized by net citizens who think it's highly inappropriate to write about high radiation levels at the school and the student's death in the same blogpost and that he is spreading a "baseless rumor".

Ichinoseki City in Iwate Prefecture is about 170 kilometers north of Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. The city has an elevated level of radiation and radiation contamination compared to the rest of Iwate Prefecture (see Professor Hayakawa's map to the right, with Ichinoseki City in a red circle at the end of a red arrow).

According to the blogpost, the student attended a junior high school in Ichinoseki City where the max radiation on the school yard exceeded 10 microsieverts/hour, and where the air radiation inside some classrooms exceeded 0.5 microsieverts/hour. She died of subarachnoid hemorrhage last week.

From "Daiken Seminar" blog (10/27/2011):

今日のこの記事を公開するかどうか丸二日僕は悩んだ。多くの保護者の方や生徒から事実を伺った。僕に話して頂いた方々の気持ちは十分分かっている。しかしあまりのも衝撃的な事実に僕の筆は止まったままだった。

I agonized for two days whether or not to make this post public. I've asked many parents and students to ascertain the facts. I fully understand how they feel about the issue. But I just couldn't proceed in the face of this shocking revelation.

亡くなられたご両親のお気持ちを考えると、心痛極まりなく、おいそれと記事にできるようなことではなかった。

My heart aches for the parents of the deceased student, and it is not the topic that I could casually write.

しかし事実だけは書かなければならないと、ここにしたためる事にする。全て固有名詞は伏せさせて頂く。

But I feel the facts should be recorded, and here they are, though I'm withholding the real names.

市内の某中学校の3年生が、先週校舎内で倒れ、意識が無いまま病院に搬送され亡くなった。クモ膜下出血による死亡だった。

Last week, a 3rd-grade student [there are three grades in Japanese junior high schools] in a junior high school in the city collapsed in the school building. She was taken to the hospital, but died without ever regaining consciousness. The cause of death was subarachnoid hemorrhage.

その中学校は中庭が10マイクロシーベルトを超える高濃度汚染ポイントがあった。亡くなった生徒は運動部に所属しており、活動場所もその中庭での運動が多くあったという。

There was a high radiation contamination spot in the school yard, exceeding 10 microsieverts/hour. The deceased student belonged to an athletic club, and the club activities often involved using the school yard.

学校ではその高濃度の線量が新聞で報道されるまで、いっさい生徒たちや保護者らには伝えられていなかった。

The school didn't inform the students and parents about the high radiation spot until it was reported in the newspaper. [In the comment section, he says the school didn't know about it until October.]

ここまでが客観的な事実である。僕はこれ以上のコメントも詮索も控えさせて頂く。

These are the objective facts. I will not comment or speculate further.

生徒によるとそこの中学校の先生方も、僕のこのブログを読んでいるとのことだった。教室によっては空間線量が0.5マイクロシーベルトを超えているという。

According to the students at this school, the teachers there also read my blog regularly. They said in some classrooms the air radiation level exceeds 0.5 microsievert/hour.

僕は動揺を通り越して、この話を聞いたあと、塾からの帰り道、車内で泣いてしまった。悔し涙である。

I was beyond upset. After I heard this story, on the way back from my school, I cried. Tears of deep regret.

He says in the comment section that the student had an underlying health issues [though she belonged to an athletic club...]. All the more reason, he says and I agree, that radiation should be avoided.

In his next post, he cites the official announcement of Ichinoseki City about radiation measurements in schools in the city (the latest update on October 20), and I have verified the source at the city's website.

The blog owner cut and pasted from the official announcement to show the locations that tested over 10 microsieverts/hour. One nursery school and three junior high schools registered 10 microsieverts/hour, and the annotations (the last column) say "maximum measurable with the instrument" (I added red circles to identify these schools). The city's instrument went overscale:

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

In my mind I keep seeing the officals "laughting" about radiation deaths. Now, its not clear if radiation caused this student's death, but for the parents--what a terrible situation. So sad and if radiation affected the health of the student to that extent--the government along with TEPCO is responible.

Anonymous said...

Does not automatically mean radiation had something to do with it, as it may have been an aneurism, but from now on every malaise will be suspect.

Anonymous said...

Radiation damage to the body will quicken the progress of existing illness, and cause others. That is the point -- you will never know for sure, which is what gives the authorities such power.
In the case of this child, we don't know much about her existing illness, but children in Chernobyl had high blood pressure in higher numbers after the accident, and high blood pressure can be a factor in strokes.

Anonymous said...

There IS HOPE that justice will be done, as scientists are beginning to discover the "fingerprint" of radiation exposure...Read this promising development in a German study released just this past May, 2011: http://www.research-in-germany.de/69042/2011-05-25-fingerprint-of-radiation-exposure-discovered-in-thyroid-cancer,print=true,slc=dachportal_2Fen.html

Justice will be done...

Anonymous said...

one child dying is a family tragedy, 5% increase in death rate amongst
teens is horrific.

does anyone have stats for japanese death rates?

can we run stats on miscarriage, child mortality etc?

FranSix said...

The real deaths as a result of radiation are likely to come in the rise of the abortion rate, or perhaps there will be a significant rise in birth defects. This is always the tell tale.

jimbojames said...

Yes, it's so easy to claim that she had a pre-existing condition, but, don't you think that radiation will claim the weakest ones first?

It's horrific that as more and more die (I want to note that I believe there will be a huge spike in abortions), they will still deny it has anything to do with Fuku.

Anonymous said...

"Radiation damage to the body will quicken the progress of existing illness, and cause others. That is the point -- you will never know for sure."

Completely correct.

All of us have physical weaknesses from the start. After all, we are all mortal.

But in usual circumstances, especially in more prosperous countries with good health care, you won't see high school students collapsing and dying just like that.

Usually good food and exercise can help with most minor and mid-level health problems.

But in some parts of eastern Japan these days, outdoors exercise and some types of fruits and vegetables can speed up death. Macabre.

As for the blood pressure, that would explain why I've had it since the age of 12, when it was first measured. I was 11 when Chernobyl happened. Nice and nasty, now many an aetiology is revealed...

Anonymous said...

there has been many deaths already. The weakest left first. The very first ones were the foetus that never made it to birth due to invisible defect caused by radiation. Elderly that suferred brain stroke due to weakened tissues. Who will know that radiation was the cause or the trigger? Almost impossible to tell case by case, but the statistics will tell. Japan has been hiding these data so far, why?

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