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THIS IS AN UPDATE dated 1 April 2011 from Dr. Helen Caldicott,
physician, paediatrician, and author of 'Nuclear
Is Not The Answer' on the current situation in Japan.
The concerned citizens of Japan, through the auspices of some
160+ NGOs, are meeting with resistance from the Japanese government
and, not surprisingly, with the operators of the stricken
plant, The
Tokyo Electric Power Company.
To bolster citizen claims that their concerns must not only
taken seriously but must be acted upon immediately, Caldicott spoke
with Claudia Cragg to underscore the dire seriousness of the
situation.
In this interview:
Japanese 'experts' maintain constantly that there are no impacts
on the population's health and that there is no risk of cancer.
Caldicott refutes this saying here that either "they are lying" or
that they are physicists who have no understanding of radiation
biology, of medicine, or of genetics.
She points particularly to the futile measure of external gamma
radiation using Geiger
counters. It is, she says as an expert in the field, the
internal emitters that cause concern, that is, even just one micro
gram of radiation entering the lungs for example. This cannot be
measured outside the body, she argues, only by a whole body measure
using spectroscopy. There are some 200 such different isotopes
which cannot be removed from the human body once it is engaged.
While
potassium
iodide may be
moderately helpful in possibly, just possibly, countering the
effects of radiation on the thyroid, she argues that there is
nothing that can be done to stop large numbers of people from
inhaling and ingesting elements of radiation.
There is, she says, NO PERMISSIBLE RADIATION DOSE. Absolutely
not. This is because the effects are cumulative. For this she
refers listeners to the
US
National Academy of Sciences 'Biological Effects of Radiation, No.
7'. The 'Fukushima 50' battling to "minimize and contain" the
fallout are, she says, "inhaling very high doses that will cause
them to incubate cancer for many years if they survive". Again she
points to the fact that the so-called levels of 'safety' are those
largely being determined by nuclear physicists and operators not by
radiation biologists.
Futhermore, Caldicott maintains that there are NO
permissible
levels of radionucleides in food. None. The food chain
"bioconcentrates the radiation" magnifying the effects
exponentially concentrating the 200 radionucleides.
To add to this hideous state of affairs, seismologists
maintain that the March 11 earthquake has increased
the likelihood of further earthquakes and possibly the 'Tokai'
earthquake that has been predicted for some time. In spite of
this,
the
Chubu Power Company continues to operate its
nuclear reactors, saying that it will "reinforce earthquake
safety". Caldicott argues that it is now "medically indicated to
shut down the nuclear plants in Japan now".
Despite everything, some like
Philip
White, of the CNIC, Japan, believe that "humans may now
hopefully choose to build a society not subject to catastrophic
risks created by mankind". But, concludes Caldicott, "This disaster
shows that nuclear power cannot be run safely. There are many ways
for a meltdown to occur, catastrophic events like this and the
compounding effects of global warming with tsunamis that can only
continue to devastate nuclear power control rooms and emergency
generations".
"Nuclear Power is not the answer to global warming".
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