Thursday, May 24, 2012

UN Committee: "6 Deaths at #Fukushima I Nuke Plant Have Nothing to Do with Radiation"


That's the conclusion of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR). TEPCO and the Japanese government have said as much already.

Yomiuri Shinbun reports (5/24/2012):

東京電力福島第一原子力発電所事故で放出された放射線が環境や人体に及ぼす影響について調査している国連放射線影響科学委員会(事務局・ウィーン)は23日、「作業員6人が事故後に死亡しているが、いずれも放射線被曝(ひばく)とは関係していない」との初期評価を発表した。

The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (Secretariat in Vienna) has been studying the effect of radiation from the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident on the environment and humans. The Committee announced its initial evaluation on May 23 that even though 6 workers have died since the start of the accident, the deaths have nothing to do with radiation exposure".

初期評価は、ウォルフガング・ワイス委員長の声明の形で出された。死亡した6人のうち、昨年8月に急性白血病で死亡した東電協力企業の40歳代男性については、「作業開始から死亡までの期間が短く、被曝との因果関係はない」とした。

The initial assessment was announced as the statement from Committee Chairman Wolfgang Weiss. As to the worker from a TEPCO affiliate company in his 40s who died of acute leukemia in August last year, UNSCEAR said, "The time was too short between the start of the work and his death, so there was no causal relationship between the death and radiation exposure."

同委員会は、さらに分析を進め、来年末までに国連総会に報告書を提出する。

The Committee will conduct further analysis, and will submit its report to the United Nations General Assembly by the end of next year.


UNSCEAR's statements are as follows:

Press release (5/23/2012) "Interim Findings of Fukushima-Daiichi Assessment presented at the Annual Meeting of UNSCEAR"

Background information for journalists (PDF; 5/23/2012)


UNSCEAR's annual meeting started on May 21 in Vienna, and will last till May 25.

Committee Chairman Weiss says in the press release:

"We have been given information about measurements made on the thyroids of over 1,000 children in Iitate village, Kawamata town and Iwaki city," said Weiss. "Also, a survey in Fukushima prefecture is aiming to evaluate irradiation levels for some 2 million people living in the prefecture at the time of the accident. The results of the UNSCEAR assessment for these areas will be compared with the Japanese measurements and analysis, and any differences will be highlighted and addressed," said Weiss.


The backgrounder for the press makes it clear that UNSCEAR will have to rely on the data to be further submitted by the Japanese government, particularly regarding the radiation dose assessment of the general public in Fukushima. To further assess the dose for the Fukushima I Nuke Plant workers, it will have to rely on the data from TEPCO. To assess the impact of radiation on the environment, all it has had so far is only a small number of published studies.

For the past year, the Japanese government has been busy telling the world everything is fine, nothing to worry about, Japan has recovered from the disaster (by which they mostly mean the earthquake and tsunami, and it is not really true). They seem to have taken their own words too literally and it seems they have neglected to collect data on radiation. Oh well. Until next time, I suppose.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

They didn't die of radiation they just smiled too much and radiation stayed away, they died of face ache from smiling too much...

Anonymous said...

Translation from bullshit: "Nothing to do with radiation as far as we can care enough to prove."

Basically, if someone dies in a radioactive environment, as long as they can't be absolutely sure it was radiation, it's okay! Maybe it's just me, but I'd be thinking the opposite...

Beppe said...

Were those workers wearing any dosimeter? Who cares whether the guy worked for a short time.

By the way, dosimeters are required by law but Tepco has less of a stellar record at complying with this and other regulations. It is also very convenient for Tepco to be often short of dosimeters...

Anonymous said...

Lying bast@r&d$

Anonymous said...

This is no better than:

"UN Committee on Science concludes the Earth is flat."

In the old days, 99% of the people would have believed them. Still, it would have been a big fat LIE.

Anonymous said...

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has VETO power over EVERYTHING the World Health Organization publishes that has to do with radiation. In effect, they wrote the report.

Check out this documentary on how this conflict of interest operates: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8746168177815160826&hl=en

Anonymous said...

UNSCEAR Total lying fucking wankers, luckily people are more informed now, back in the day they could have got away with this shit.... imagine if the internet was around back in 1986 when Chernobyl went up ... so much would have been found out that was and still is covered up...

m a x l i said...

What would we find in a police report, if all the forensics data gets collected and delivered by the bank robber himself, and if the police force is recruited from retired bank robbers and is very busy telling everyone, all the time, that robbing banks is good?

m a x l i said...

In the above article it says:

As to the worker from a TEPCO affiliate company in his 40s who died of acute leukemia in August last year, UNSCEAR said, "The time was too short between the start of the work and his death, so there was no causal relationship between the death and radiation exposure."

What you can read out of this statement is: If then more time (than only 5 month) would have gone by, then there COULD HAVE BEEN a causal relationship between death and radiation exposure. Does it tell us something about what UNSCEAR is expecting for future years?

Anonymous said...

I hope the Japanese governmnet reward the UN committee and IAEA for the excellent work proving no harm of Fukushima fallout -- by servince them meeting lunches and coffee breaks made exclusively of Fukushima produced rice, vegetables, tea, beef, water, and local pastries with high concentration of Fukushima milk, in all of their meeting hereafter.

Have them eat their words :)

UN has enough staff members all over the world to consume all of Fukushima foods by themselves. Let them prove their own "scientific findings" through their actions.

Post a Comment