Excerpt: "An estimated 14,000 excess deaths in the United States are linked to the radioactive fallout from the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, according to a major new article in the December 2011 edition of the International Journal of Health Services. This is the first peer-reviewed study published in a medical journal documenting the health hazards of Fukushima."
NOAA has run a numeric model for ocean surface currents to predict the movement of marine debris generated by the Japan tsunami over five years. The model measures the movement of surface currents, as well as the movement of what is in or on the water, 03/31/11. (photo: J. Churnside (NOAA OAR)/Google Earth)
Study: US Deaths Tied to Fukushima Disaster Fallout
20 December 11
Impact seen as roughly comparable to radiation-related deaths after Chernobyl; infants are hardest hit, with continuing research showing even higher possible death count.
n estimated 14,000 excess deaths in the United States are linked to the radioactive fallout from the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, according to a major new article in the December 2011 edition of the International Journal of Health Services. This is the first peer-reviewed study published in a medical journal documenting the health hazards of Fukushima.
Authors Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman note that their estimate of 14,000 excess U.S. deaths in the 14 weeks after the Fukushima meltdowns is comparable to the 16,500 excess deaths in the 17 weeks after the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986. The rise in reported deaths after Fukushima was largest among U.S. infants under age one. The 2010-2011 increase for infant deaths in the spring was 1.8 percent, compared to a decrease of 8.37 percent in the preceding 14 weeks.
Just six days after the disastrous meltdowns struck four reactors at Fukushima on March 11, scientists detected the plume of toxic fallout had arrived over American shores. Subsequent measurements by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found levels of radiation in air, water, and milk hundreds of times above normal across the U.S. The highest detected levels of Iodine-131 in precipitation in the U.S. were as follows (normal is about 2 picocuries I-131 per liter of water): Boise, ID (390); Kansas City (200); Salt Lake City (190); Jacksonville, FL (150); Olympia, WA (125); and Boston, MA (92).
Epidemiologist Joseph Mangano, MPH MBA, said: "This study of Fukushima health hazards is the first to be published in a scientific journal. It raises concerns, and strongly suggests that health studies continue, to understand the true impact of Fukushima in Japan and around the world. Findings are important to the current debate of whether to build new reactors, and how long to keep aging ones in operation."
Mangano is executive director, Radiation and Public Health Project, and the author of 27 peer-reviewed medical journal articles and letters.
Internist and toxicologist Janette Sherman, MD, said: "Based on our continuing research, the actual death count here may be as high as 18,000, with influenza and pneumonia, which were up five-fold in the period in question as a cause of death. Deaths are seen across all ages, but we continue to find that infants are hardest hit because their tissues are rapidly multiplying, they have undeveloped immune systems, and the doses of radioisotopes are proportionally greater than for adults."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issues weekly reports on numbers of deaths for 122 U.S. cities with a population over 100,000, or about 25-30 percent of the U.S. In the 14 weeks after Fukushima fallout arrived in the U.S. (March 20 to June 25), deaths reported to the CDC rose 4.46 percent from the same period in 2010, compared to just 2.34 percent in the 14 weeks prior. Estimated excess deaths during this period for the entire U.S. are about 14,000.
Dr. Sherman is an adjunct professor, Western Michigan University, and contributing editor of "Chernobyl - Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment" published by the NY Academy of Sciences in 2009, and author of "Chemical Exposure and Disease and Life's Delicate Balance - Causes and Prevention of Breast Cancer."
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Comments
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And you wonder why people don't trust their governments?
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/12/20/researchers-trumpet-another-flawed-fukushima-death-study/
And where did you get the idea the paper is "64 pages" long? It's 16 pages counting all of the Appendices.
Are you sure you looked at the right paper?
This was a terrible tragedy for Japan with worldwide repercussions. The story could be covered more in the media, but it feels like there is nothing we can do about the health issues after the damage has been done.
Media coverage could force proactive policies to prevent another disaster, such as shutting down all nuclear reactors gradually over time. How much support would this get from big money interests?
Having opened Pandora's Box, the used nuclear salesmen can do nothing but hide their face ~ even from their own families ~ yet lack the intestinal fortitude to say, "STOP THIS!" ~ even now.
It's impossible to say whether a particular person's death was caused by Fukushima radiation, just as it's impossible to say a particular extreme weather event was caused or made stronger by global warming. But when you see a strong enough correlation of rising deaths with how much radiation increased in various locations, and you know radiation causes damage to tissues, you can conclude that the increase in deaths was probably due to the radiation. And when the frequency or intensity of extreme weather events rises with the temperature, especially when scientists predicted this would happen years earlier, and when nobody has found any other explanation, you can conclude that global warming = more extreme weather.
This statement speaks volumes! I remember that period a few days after the design-flawed reactor blew, spewing out death that should never have left its natural source. We were told that "monitor readings on the West Coast of the U.S. were high". The solution: our govt. shut down the monitoring stations. Was this a protective reaction in the interest of citizen health or in the interest of the corporation's bottom line? Seems clear to me what the answer to that question is. Is there a $ figure that will sate the greed of our corporate lords? the gods that our oath-sworn leaders grovel before? those who's altar we lay out our sons and daughters as sacrificial gifts in foreign countries that possess oil? What's worse? ignorance? War? GM-poisoned foods? destroyed environment? Torture? Rendition? Racism? lack of compassion? brain washing? incarceration and murder of truth tellers?
Because of this repeating of history, Earth's 'civilizations' continue to live in the Dark Ages, centurys away from enlightenment. Any question why GREED is a sin in your bible and in every creed on earth? and still we admire and cowtow to those who reach some level of excessive wealth. Shame on all of us. We reap what we have sown.
Any scientist understands that the ecology of the earth is connected, which makes it possible there will be radioactive fallout in this country. You cannot deny radiation causes serious health issues and can kill. This was not the first meltdown and likely will not be the last. Opponents of nuclear power are not a lunatic fringe. Maybe the question is what vested interest makes you so obviously pro-nuclear.
Reviewing the meager available data and the furious actions taken at Fukushima I fear the problem is far worse than reported. No suprise there.
A reliable up-to-date source of engineering/phy sics data from Japan is the Union of Concerned Scientists web site.
I am generally with the folks who are concerned about environmental effects of our economic activities, but am also skeptical here - radiation effects tend to be of long duration unless extremely high levels are incurred, which is certainly not the case here.
Lets not try to demonize governmental agencies - or the nuke industry for that matter - on the basis on the questionable data presented here.
Another point (fact)-US monitoring facilities are unbelievably being run by the same industry they are supposed to monitor: http://www.bobtuskin.com/2011/12/12/us-radiation-monitoring-may-have-been-handed-off-to-nuclear-industry-lobbyists/
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn06172011.html
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