Tuesday, November 1, 2011

1.7 Millisievert External Radiation in One Month for 3rd Grader in Fukushima City: "Will Not Affect Health" Says City Official

Japan's new normal in radiation exposure is getting ridiculous almost every day, particularly in Fukushima Prefecture.

Fukushima City announced the result of the readings of the glass badges worn by children and pregnant women in the city for the month of September, and the highest reading was 1.7 millisievert external radiation exposure in one month for a 3rd-grader in an elementary school. Her two brothers were also found with high radiation reading off their badges.

The city says, "That level of radiation does not affect health".

1.7 millisievert per month x 12 months = 20.4 millisieverts per year of EXTRA external radiation on top of the natural (pre-Fukushima) external radiation (Japan average) of 0.59 millisievert per year, and EXTRA internal radiation from inhaling and ingesting Fukushima-origin radioactive materials on top of natural internal radiation exposure of 0.86 millisievert per year.

The current (soon to be revised, supposedly) provisional safety limits for food for various radionuclides are designed to add up to 17 millisieverts per year radiation if one eats food that tests at the maximum upper limit of the provisional safety limits.

Well, by now we know that the Japanese officials truly think that "it does not affect health" as long as one dies of acute radiation poisoning.

From Mainichi Shinbun (11/1/2011):

福島市は1日、妊婦や子供ら3万6989人に配布した個人線量計(ガラスバッジ)で9月に測定した被ばく線量を公表した。1カ月の線量は小学3年女児の1.7ミリシーベルトが最大で、女児の兄弟3人も1.4~1.6ミリシーベルトだった。自宅近くに高線量スポットがあり、県外に転居したという。市の担当者は「健康に影響を与える数値ではない」と話している。

On November 1, Fukushima City disclosed the result of the readings for the month of September from the glass badges distributed to 36,989 children and pregnant women in the city. The maximum reading was 1.7 millisievert from a girl in the 3rd grade of an elementary school. Her three brothers also tested between 1.4 and 1.6 millisievert. There is a high radiation "hot spot" near their house, and they have since moved out of Fukushima. The city official says "It is not the level that affects health."

 市は3万6478人から個人線量計を回収して分析。他に1ミリシーベルトを超えた人はなく、0.1ミリシーベルト未満16%▽0.1ミリシーベルト64%▽0.2ミリシーベルト17%▽0.3ミリシーベルト2%--で0.3ミリシーベルト以下が99%を占めた。0.4ミリシーベルト105人 ▽0.5ミリシーベルト25人▽0.6ミリシーベルト6人▽0.9ミリシーベルト1人--だった。

The city had the glass badges collected from 36,478 people and had them analyzed. [Aside from the girl and her brothers] there was no one whose radiation exposure exceeded 1 millisievert. The result [excluding the 4 children] was:

Less than 0.1 millisievert: 16%
0.1 millisievert: 64%
0.2 millisievert: 17%
0.3 millisievert: 2%
0.4 millisievert: 105 people [0.29%]
0.5 millisievert: 25 people
0.6 millisievert: 6 people
0.9 millisievert: 1 person

 市は10~11月の積算線量も測定中で、今回を含めた3カ月間の結果を基に影響を評価する。

The city continues the monitoring in October and November, and will evaluate the radiation effect after 3 months worth of data are collected.

Why bother "evaluate"? It sure looks like a foregone conclusion that "there is no effect on health", probably up to 100 millisieverts per year...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Meltdown at Dai 2??

http://www.asahi.com/national/update/1102/TKY201111020003.html

Anonymous said...

It must be pretty bad if TEPCO are now making press releases saying they suspect re-criticallity given that they spent the first 6 months in total denial that this was even remotely possible. Not a good news story to wake up to, but thank you for posting it Anonymous!

William Milberry said...

@first Anonymous commenter: I think you might have misread "unit 2" as "Dai 2". The article at that link is talking about Unit 2 at Fukushima Daiichi, not Daini.

Anonymous said...

I would start killing these bastards on sight if this were my kid.

Anonymous said...

The radiation sickness we shall see here takes time , I see a lot of dead in their early teens. At the very least their profile as a group will look like Hirososhima survivors .
I can't believe they ( Tepco and the govts of Japan and the US ) get away with this genocide. But they will.

kintaman said...

Can we please put the Officials in Fukushima and give their homes to the children.

Why should the responsible officials be able to make such claims and then go home to their houses far from the Fukushima site?

Anonymous said...

"It doesn't affect human health" at this stage merely means "You won't drop dead instantaneously".

Anonymous said...

...and even if you do, it will be attributed to pre-existing condition.

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