New report from NIRS [link to www.nirs.org]

way less than 50%



Health at a Glance in the Post-Earthquake Japan
[link to www.nirs.org]



-The explosion in Unit 3, which was very likely a small nuclear explosion, is
almost certainly responsible for the distribution highly radioactive fuel rod fragments on the site, and
apparently more than 1/2 mile from the site. Unlike Chernobyl which is often dismissed as a lesser design,
the Fukushima Daiichi reactors, and many others in Japan, are of US design and construction.

-Another unique factor of a radiological disaster: impacts of the past and present are dwarfed by the
impacts that lie ahead, in the future. It is important to add: non-human life (plants,
animals, fungi, viruses and bacteria) will also suffer mutation, disease and death.

-The level "up to 20 mSv" is not safe, as will be discussed below. These zones are less protective than
those established for the area around Chernobyl, which by contrast are:
1-5 mSv - zone of control
5-20 mSv - zone of limited occupancy
20-50 mSv - occupancy prohibited (no permanent residence)
> 50mSv - restricted zone
Clearly the Soviet / Ukrainian governments placed a limit on unrestricted occupancy near Chernobyl that
is four times more protective than the plan offered by the Japanese government.

-The radioactivity expelled from the Fukushima Daiichi reactors ranks as one of the largest public health
emergencies in the history of the world. This tragedy is only beginning; like the other major radiological
releases*6 there will be no "end" insofar as contamination will persist for hundreds of years at dangerous
levels. Efforts are being made, and will continue, to reduce the amount of radiation that people are
exposed to, but sadly these are not good enough.

-In broad-brush, none of these
conclusions are controversial among radiation researchers:

1. There is no "safe" dose of radiation -- every exposure has the risk of adverse health outcomes,
including fatal cancer; all life-forms are impacted, not only our species;
2. The outcome from radiation most studied is cancer -- but it is not the only health impact;
3. Children are most vulnerable to harm from radiation due to smaller body mass and rapid cell
division; and girls are more impacted than boys;
4. Women are 50 percent more vulnerable to harm from a given level of exposure compared to men
(this may be due to greater mass of radiosensitive reproductive tissue in females);
5. Some people are born with a gene that makes them more vulnerable to radiation harm;
6. Internal exposure results from breathing contaminated air, drinking contaminated water or eating
contaminated food and this results in higher levels (and generally longer exposure) to tissue than
purely external doses like X-rays;
7. Current methods of calculating radiation doses do not account for the difference of internal and
external exposure, or gender; sometimes age and body mass are factored, but usually not when
reporting an ambient radiation level.

-We know the radioactivity from Japan has "gone
global" since the radioactive air masses circled the Northern Hemisphere repeatedly. We cannot reliably
know what the consequences over time will be; we will hear many estimates in the years to come, and
most of these estimates will not agree with each other. Barring change, most will under-report the
consequences for women and for children since: the regulation of radiation and nuclear activity
(worldwide) ignores the disproportionately greater harm to both women and children

-None of this is as important as the simple fact is that children in parts of Japan, right now, are sleeping,
eating, playing and going to school in places highly contaminated. Further, the Japanese government has
affirmed that people, including children, can stay in areas where readings of radiation monitors project an
annual dose of 20 mSv*8, a level 20 times higher doses regulators "allow" an adult in the general public
receive in a year from nuclear energy operations. The dose to the children will be more than that: the
child's body is smaller, and the 1 mSv is based on external radiation exposure, while the children in Japan
(and adults too) are inhaling and ingesting radioactivity, as people in Ukraine and Belarus (and people
across Europe) did during and after the Chernobyl disaster. Children, and their communities, living in
contaminated areas will get doses that radiation regulators will not be fully assess because there is no easy
way to track internalized radioactivity

~
b