Living with the fallout of Fukushima: As radiation fears persist, ties unravel in society

[kristopher]

As radiation fears persist, ties unravel in society
January 04, 2012
By ATSUSHI MATSUKAWA / Staff Writer

A 4-year-old boy in Tokyo's Meguro Ward wears two flu masks and a raincoat every time he goes to his kindergarten. When he returns home, he is immediately told to shower and rinse his body with bottled water.

These measures are ordered by his 28-year-old mother, who remains fearful about radiation from the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant 230 kilometers away.

Her husband has told her to stop, and they once quarreled for three hours over the matter.

"I no longer tell him anything about my uneasiness. I don't think he will understand me," said the mother, adding that she wants to flee to western Japan with her son, leaving her husband behind.

Japan's worst nuclear disaster has caused a number of rifts in a society ...

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201201040042

[FBaggins]

1. The amazing thing...

...is that there are so many here who won't realize how irrational the mother is being.

This isn't "living with fallout"... it's "living with paranoia".

[kristopher]

3. No, it is living with fallout.

par·a·noi·a
noun&
A mental condition characterized by delusions of persecution, unwarranted jealousy, or exaggerated self-importance, typically elaborated into an organized system. It may be an aspect of chronic personality disorder, of drug abuse, or of a serious condition such as schizophrenia in which the person loses touch with reality

Suspicion and mistrust of people or their actions without evidence or justification


Being afraid of exposure to known but unseen environmental toxins that can kill us and our children is healthy.

Not placing faith in people or institutions that have proven to be untrustworthy is good judgment.

Being caught in a situation where your life is turned upside down by having that kind of fear thrust on you in circumstances where those you depend on to keep you safe are the ones' that have proven untrustworthy is tragedy, not mental illness.

Of course, if you are only concerned about promoting a technological concept the suffering isn't particularly relevant to you.

[FBaggins]

4. The definition fits her behavior perfectly.

She's reportedly in Tokyo. There are no "unseen environmental toxins that can kill us" that can rationally be attributed to Fukushima in Tokyo. There are scores of more dangerous risks that she allows her child to live with every day (like... walking down the stairs... or crossing the street... or taking the bus to school).

Paying undue attention to risks that have a one in many millions chance of harming you at all is the very definition of paranoia.

Like the nuts here and in Europe actually taking potassium iodide last March.

[kristopher]

5. I'm sorry, but you are wrong.

Let me repeat:

par·a·noi·a

Does this fit?
A mental condition characterized by delusions of persecution, unwarranted jealousy, or exaggerated self-importance, typically elaborated into an organized system. It may be an aspect of chronic personality disorder, of drug abuse, or of a serious condition such as schizophrenia in which the person loses touch with reality.

No it does not.

Then how about this?
Suspicion and mistrust of people or their actions without evidence or justification.

No it does not.

She has ample cause to doubt the pronouncements of those she has previously trusted to provide information critical to the safety of her and her child.

That isn't paranoia - that is a rational response to betrayal when faced with a threat that you cannot evaluate on your own.

So as I said, being caught in a situation where your life is turned upside down by having that kind of fear thrust on you in circumstances where those you depend on to keep you safe are the ones' that have proven untrustworthy is tragedy, not mental illness.

[FBaggins]

6. Explaining that you agree with her fear...

...is not the same thing as demonstrating that it isn't an irrational fear. It demonstrates merely that you share it.

The fact that some postulated official has objectively lied to you in the past does not mean that you aren't paranoid when he tells you that your tinfoil hat is not needed. Particularly when those who have not lied to you and are experts in the field tell you the same thing.

If you spend your days building an Ark, you are no less paranoid by proclaiming that the weather man has been wrong before.

[kristopher]

7. I hope you realize how irrational *you* sound

But I doubt it.

In point of fact, the article itself is an excellent discussion of the consequences of dealing with the problem 'ala Baggins'.

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201201040042

[FBaggins]

11. That's ok

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I haven't put much stock in your ability to recognize rationality.

This is a fine example.

[kristopher]

13. You are entitled to your opinion.

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201201040042

[CJvR]

14. 4611

Japanese killed in traffic in 2011, 215 in Tokyo, vs ZERO killed of radiation poisoning.

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/traffic-accident-fatalities-decrease-for-11th-year-in-a-row

So the risk of getting hit by the car you didn't see is a few magnitudes higher than the risk of getting irradiated by the fallout you didn't see.

[kristopher]

15. 245,000

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Volume 1181 Issue Chernobyl
Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment, Pages 31 - 220

Chapter II. Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe for Public Health

Alexey B. Nesterenko a , Vassily B. Nesterenko a ,† and Alexey V. Yablokov b
a
Institute of Radiation Safety (BELRAD), Minsk, Belarus b Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
Address for correspondence: Alexey V. Yablokov, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky Prospect 33, Office 319, 119071 Moscow,
Russia. Voice: [phone]; fax: [phone]. [e-mail]
†Deceased


ABSTRACT

Problems complicating a full assessment of the effects from Chernobyl included official secrecy and falsification of medical records by the USSR for the first 3.5 years after the catastrophe and the lack of reliable medical statistics in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. Official data concerning the thousands of cleanup workers (Chernobyl liquidators) who worked to control the emissions are especially difficult to reconstruct. Using criteria demanded by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) resulted in marked underestimates of the number of fatalities and the extent and degree of sickness among those exposed to radioactive fallout from Chernobyl. Data on exposures were absent or grossly inadequate, while mounting indications of adverse effects became more and more apparent. Using objective information collected by scientists in the affected areas—comparisons of morbidity and mortality in territories characterized by identical physiography, demography, and economy, which differed only in the levels and spectra of radioactive contamination—revealed significant abnormalities associated with irradiation, unrelated to age or sex (e.g., stable chromosomal aberrations), as well as other genetic and nongenetic pathologies.

<snip>

This section describes the spectrum and the scale of the nonmalignant diseases that have been found among exposed populations. Adverse effects as a result of Chernobyl irradiation have been found in every group that has been studied. Brain damage has been found in individuals directly exposed—liquidators and those living in the contaminated territories, as well as in their offspring. Premature cataracts; tooth and mouth abnormalities; and blood, lymphatic, heart, lung, gastrointestinal, urologic, bone, and skin diseases afflict and impair people, young and old alike. Endocrine dysfunction, particularly thyroid disease, is far more common than might be expected, with some 1,000 cases of thyroid dysfunction for every case of thyroid cancer, a marked increase after the catastrophe. There are genetic damage and birth defects especially in children of liquidators and in children born in areas with high levels of radioisotope contamination. Immunological abnormalities and increases in viral, bacterial, and parasitic diseases are rife among individuals in the heavily contaminated areas. For more than 20 years, overall morbidity has remained high in those exposed to the irradiation released by Chernobyl. One cannot give credence to the explanation that these numbers are due solely to socioeconomic factors. The negative health consequences of the catastrophe are amply documented in this chapter and concern millions of people.

The most recent forecast by international agencies predicted there would be between 9,000 and 28,000 fatal cancers between 1986 and 2056, obviously underestimating the risk factors and the collective doses. On the basis of I-131 and Cs-137 radioisotope doses to which populations were exposed and a comparison of cancer mortality in the heavily and the less contaminated territories and pre- and post-Chernobyl cancer levels, a more realistic figure is 212,000 to 245,000 deaths in Europe and 19,000 in the rest of the world. High levels of Te-132, Ru-103, Ru-106, and Cs-134 persisted months after the Chernobyl catastrophe and the continuing radiation from Cs-137, Sr-90, Pu, and Am will generate new neoplasms for hundreds of years.

A detailed study reveals that 3.8–4.0% of all deaths in the contaminated territories of Ukraine and Russia from 1990 to 2004 were caused by the Chernobyl catastrophe. The lack of evidence of increased mortality in other affected countries is not proof of the absence of effects from the radioactive fallout. Since 1990, mortality among liquidators has exceeded the mortality rate in corresponding population groups. From 112,000 to 125,000 liquidators died before 2005—that is, some 15% of the 830,000 members of the Chernobyl cleanup teams. The calculations suggest that the Chernobyl catastrophe has already killed several hundred thousand human beings in a population of several hundred million that was unfortunate enough to live in territories affected by the fallout. The number of Chernobyl victims will continue to grow over many future generations.

[CJvR]

16. So...?

Even if we simply accept that bolded figure without closer examination the total fatalities following the far more serious Chernobyl disaster generated only about 20% of the fatalities that road traffic does in a single year.

[kristopher]

17. So?

[CJvR]

18. So!

No matter how you turn and twist it the poor mother in Tokyo is quite content to ignore a far greater danger while getting hysterical over a much lesser peril.

[kristopher]

21. I'm happy to let your perspective speak for itself.

I think it indicates a callous disregard of the plight of those who are facing a contaminated environment and food supply. It is like ridiculing people for their worry about any other form of toxic contamination that is becoming ubiquitous in their environment and food supply.

Good luck. I'm sure you'll persuade a lot of people with the approach of trying to portray the "hysterical" mother as just a poor, stupid dolt for not trusting the information on safety given to her by the same people who told her Fukushima could never happen.

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201201040042

[CJvR]

24. Hardly callous.

But when they are not facing a contaminated enviroment or food supply, then what? 4611 killed in the traffic she is quite happy to allow her children to be exposed to vs ZERO radiological fatalities from Fuckupshima. She and her kids are far more likely to get killed driving to the western prefectures than of Fukushima and that is an unavoidable fact.

[Dead_Parrot]

19. What, no link?

Oh, I forgot - They dropped it for being wildly inaccurate. Happily, their review is still available:

http://www.nyas.org/asset.axd?id=8b4c4bfc-3b35-434f-8a5c-ee5579d11dbb&t=634507382459270000

Describing the "radiogenic" mortality, the author forgets that we are all mortal, including the
Chernobyl workers and the population of the contaminated areas, and attributes mortality
mainly to the impact of radiation. Meanwhile, quite accurate data of the Russian national
registry suggest that mortality rates of the Chernobyl workers standardized by age and sex are
no higher but lower than the one for the population of Russia (Ivanov et al. 2004). Yablokov's
assessment for the mortality from Chernobyl fallout of about one million (!) before 2004
(Subsection 7.7) puts this book in a range of rather science fiction than science. It is obvious
that if such a mass death of people occurred, it would not have remained unnoticed, even
more because it is not so much about the population of the three countries, than about the rest
of Europe and even countries outside Europe (!).

But then, that doesn't the required conclusion, does it?

[kristopher]

23. "They dropped it"?

They did not withdraw the paper, DP. It is out of print but still available for download.

The nuclear industry flooded the editors using their standard method of attacking all critics. This was the result and it simply is not what you claim:
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences issue “Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment”, therefore, does not present new, unpublished work, nor is it a work commissioned by the New York Academy of Sciences. The expressed views of the authors, or by advocacy groups or individuals with specific opinions about the Chernobyl volume, are their own. Although the New York Academy of Sciences believes it has a responsibility to provide open forums for discussion of scientific questions, the Academy has no intent to influence legislation by providing such forums. The Academy is committed to publishing content deemed scientifically valid by the general scientific community, from whom the Academy carefully monitors feedback.

The inclusion of the latest review is understandable given the vitriol of those, like Balanov, whose work has been called into question, but it is hardly a definitive rebuttal of what was published.

[Dead_Parrot]

25. Aha! I knew it!

[kristopher]

26. Aha! I knew it!

You deny the self-evident tactics by a highly organized industry of professionals who meet all critics with full-on attacks intent on personal destruction of the critic.

[Dead_Parrot]

27. lolwut?

Dude, NYAS's own reviewer has listed holes in the article you could drive a bus through. If you want to convince me, address them. Needless to say I won't be holding my breath.

Blaming nameless, shadowy industry forces every time reality doesn't meet your expectations is getting a bit monotonous.

[kristopher]

28. lolwut?

Dude, that isn't "NYAS's own reviewer"; it is, as I said, a review by one of the people whose work has been called into question by the book.

I have no interest in convincing you, DP. You are most definitely a part of the problem, not the solution. And if we are speaking of things getting a bit monotonous, your blind cheerleading and ceaseless attacks on behalf of nuclear power would be right up there.

[Dead_Parrot]

29. Yes, I expect he hacked the NYAS servers to upload it to their website

Even had the balls to leave his own name on it!

Cheeky devils, us shadowy industry shills.

[kristopher]

30. Apparently you can't read.

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences issue “Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment”, therefore, does not present new, unpublished work, nor is it a work commissioned by the New York Academy of Sciences. The expressed views of the authors, or by advocacy groups or individuals with specific opinions about the Chernobyl volume, are their own. Although the New York Academy of Sciences believes it has a responsibility to provide open forums for discussion of scientific questions, the Academy has no intent to influence legislation by providing such forums. The Academy is committed to publishing content deemed scientifically valid by the general scientific community, from whom the Academy carefully monitors feedback.


That blurb is a direct response to the onslaught by the nuclear industry.

[Dead_Parrot]

31. And nothing to do with the figures being flat-out wrong.

Gotcha.

[kristopher]

32. About being flat-out wrong

DP:
post 19: "They dropped it "
False

post 27: "NYAS's own reviewer"
False

Other than that, you've offered little but snark, sarcasm and personal attacks - IOW your standard contribution to discussion.

[Dead_Parrot]

34. All you've offered is personal attacks and a paper you cannot defend

At least I put in a picture.

[Nihil]

35. It also leads to self-fulfilling prophecies ...

I would expect both the mother and the poor child being forced to behave
in that outlandish way to end up adding to the statistics on "the spike of
mental illness that followed the Fukushima tragedy" (along with the genuinely
affected thousands from the effects of the earthquakes & tsunami itself).

Sad.

[madokie]

2. I feel for them

I knew it was going to happen sooner or later, just didn't know from what or where. Nuclear energy is way too dangerous to use as a way to boil water. There's options available that doesn't require coal either.

We have a big planet that has higher temperatures as you head for the middle and we have an atmosphere that is cooler. All that is necessary to make all the power we need and not have to spoil the world to do it. Why do they only use water as a working fluid, theres many different fluids available to take waters place that doesn't need so much heat to boil. Phase change is what is doing the work here no matter the heat source.
I mean is it because they've always done it that way or what

[zeaper]

8. Actually phase change does not do any work.

In fact the energy required for phase change is the reason that thermal cycle power generators cannot be much more than 30-35% efficient. This is best explained in a basic thermodynamics class. Take the class and you will also find out why water is an excellent working fluid.

[kristopher]

9. That must be why geothermal is a myth...

Geothermal, The Holy Grail of Heating/Cooling
http://www.celsias.com/article/hotel-diaries-part-iv-geothermal-the-holy-grail-of/

US DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Geothermal Technologies Program
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/geothermal/

First Google.Org-Funded Geothermal Mapping Report Confirms Vast Coast-to-Coast Clean Energy Source
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/geothermal/news_detail.html?news_id=17844

And why the equally mythical new designs are useless.
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/geothermal/technologies.html

[zeaper]

10. Take a Thermodynamics Class Kris you, of all people, really need it.

[kristopher]

12. Actually any time invested in education would be more justified

...by you learning the basics of how communication works. Your post, at best, was just someone trying to be mean to another person.

[Kolesar]

20. He needs a valium

or a beer

[OKIsItJustMe]

22. A former co-worker was from Kiev

The meltdown at Chernobyl (and the coverup) led to her bringing her family to the US.

Rains made her uneasy, reminding her of how she had let her children play outdoors in the rain following the meltdown, unaware of what had happened 100 km to the North.

[kristopher]

33. It is a common and normal response I believe.

Fukushima fears tear apart Japanese-German family
January 05, 2012
By KAZUYO NAKAMURA / Staff Writer

Shortly after the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was crippled by the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, Sascha fled to Germany with his wife and daughter, a move that would split the family apart to this day.

While Sascha has since returned to Tokyo alone to continue his work as a radio disc jockey, his wife, Terumi, and their 4-year-old daughter, Leiya, remain in Germany.

Sascha, 35, who identifies himself only by his first name, was unconvinced that radiation levels in Japan would not have an adverse impact on the health of his family.

Nine months after leaving Japan, Terumi, 39, who can speak very little German, often struggles with basic day-to-day procedures. And she’s not the only one feeling the stress of living in a foreign land. Leiya, who attends kindergarten in Munich, showed apparent strains from a new environment, acting out on occasion, for some time.

But the girl lights up when she talks ...

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201201050050

[Maslo55]

36. we can see

that the irrational exaggeration of the dangers of radiation (often propagated by anti nuclear propagandists) causes far more suffering than actual accidents involving radiation.

The most ironic thing is, she got far greater dose of radiation due to her flight to Germany that she would get by staying in Tokyo the whole time!

This is why teaching people about the real science and nature of radiation, and real health dangers of the involved radiation doses, and comparing it to the examples they know (flights, medical x-rays, junk food) is important.

[kristopher]

37. Can Web-savvy activist moms change Japan?

Can Web-savvy activist moms change Japan?

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's nuclear crisis has turned Mizuho Nakayama into one of a small but growing number of Internet-savvy activist moms.

Worried about her 2-year-old son and distrustful of government and TV reports that seemed to play down radiation risks, she scoured the Web for information and started connecting with other mothers through Twitter and Facebook, many using social media for the first time.

The 41-year-old mother joined a parents group -- one of dozens that have sprung up since the crisis -- that petitioned local officials in June to test lunches at schools and day care centers for radiation and avoid using products from around the troubled nuclear plant.

...Public dismay with the government's response to this year's triple disaster -- earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown -- is driving some Japanese to become more politically engaged, helped by social and alternative media. While still fledgling, it's the kind of grass-roots activism that some say Japan needs to shake up a political system that has allowed the country's problems to fester for years... [div]

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/features/news/20111230p2g00m0fe009000c.html