Fukushima population flees from fallout

This is not old news; it's happening right now--
CLICK HERE

Fukushima Update

Yahoo.com: (Tens of) thousands march against nuclear power in Tokyo

New book on Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Atomic Cover-Up

    DemocracyNow.org interviews Greg Mitchell, author of "Atomic Cover-Up: Two U.S. Soldiers, Hiroshima and Nagasaki and The Greatest Movie Never Made" at Atomic Cover-Up: The Hidden Story Behind the U.S. Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Mitchell also co-authored (with Robert Jay Lifton) "Hiroshima in America: A Half Century of Denial."   

TODAY'S POST BELOW.

FUKUSHIMA: Stabilized

     Japan's crippled nuclear plant reaches stability. If you read this article closely this does not mean radiation is not still affecting the environment. (In fact, at this very moment Fukushima beef is being recalled because cows ate cesium-contaminated straw.) It just means the situation has stopped getting worse. Japan is now denying the three meltdowns, which they had before admitted and which have been confirmed by other countries. They are now calling them "partial meltdowns."
     Thank God they are shutting the plants down. They anticipate achieving a "cold shutdown" by January. "A reactor reaches cold shutdown when the temperature at the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel drops below 100 degrees Celsius, and when the release of radioactive materials is 'under control.'"
     Note: This means the release of radioactive materials is not yet 'under control' and is not expected to be under control for six more months. 

FUKUSHIMA- Good news: Four nations swear off nuclear energy

China suspends nuclear power

March 16 - Japan's nuclear crisis reverberated in atomic power-friendly countries Wednesday, with China saying it would hold off on approving new nuclear plants and French lawmakers questioning top energy executives about the safety of their reactors.

     Some governments have put their nuclear future on hold, at least for now, as concerns grow even among pro-nuclear governments about reactor safety around the world. . . China's Cabinet said Wednesday the government will suspend approvals for nuclear power stations to allow for a revision in safety standards. Huffington Post


Swiss to phase out nuclear power by 2034

May 25 - The Swiss cabinet wants to gradually decommission all of Switzerland’s nuclear power plants by 2034. Energy Minister Doris Leuthard said the country’s five nuclear power stations would not be replaced when they reach the end of their lifespan. Swissinfo.ch

Germany To Drop Nuclear Power By 2022

May 30 - Possibly the most conservative government in Europe--Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union in Germany--has decided to phase out nuclear power. German Chancellor Angela Merkel vows to close all 17 of the country’s nuclear plants by 2022, with 8 plants to close immediately. The country becomes the first to swear off nuclear power in the wake of the recent nuclear emergency at the Fukushima power plant in Japan. Wall Street Journal.


Italians Vote to Abandon Nuclear Energy
June 14 - More than 94% of Italians voted to abandon nuclear power for the foreseeable future, turning out in droves to cast ballots. . . Anti-nuclear campaigners say Japan's Fukushima disaster in March helped sway public opinion against nuclear power.  WSJ / Globe and Mail / BBC  

Resisting this tsunami of sanity, Britain and France remain committed to nuclear energy.

FUKUSHIMA: Fifty-seven-year-old lie

     Radiation can't hurt you. That's a 57-year old lie. 
     In my post His Scribe: Growing up in Hiroshima - 2, I describe how our Atomic Energy Commission hired my father and other scientists and doctors to research radiation in Hiroshima. But I'm not sure I posted what happened afterward. 
     Three years later Dad submitted his results: The growth and development program of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission: Analysis of observations on maturation, body build and posture taken in 1951-54 on 4,800 Hiroshima children by Earle L. Reynolds. Ph.D. It was a three-inch thick hardback book of facts, backed by statistics and graphs, indicating that radiation stunts growth, compromises immune systems, and causes cancer--in children, which were his specialty, leukemia and thyroid cancers. 

     By the time Dad submitted these findings, the Atomic Energy Commission was trying to calm American apprehensions about radiation because it was now promoting an extensive series of atmospheric nuclear tests in the Pacific. Talk about conflict of interests! The very agency which commissioned the study of the possible dangers of radiation suppressed the facts about those dangers for 4-5 years, until our testing program was over. 

      Then they must have released the study because two researchers after that time refer to it. 

     Originally, the study was designed to be longitudinal. The same children were supposed to be studied periodically as they grew up, married, and had children of their own. But the AEC discontinued the research (on the first population in human history exposed to radiation!) as "unimportant." It has been left up to non-government-funded, non-political scientists like those at http://radiation.org/ to discover that some lethal effects of radiation do not appear until ten years or more after exposure (read any book on the little girl who made the paper crane a symbol of hope, Sadako Sasaki--exposed to the Hiroshima bomb at two, developed her first symptoms at 12 and died that same year) and that babies born to radiation-exposed parents can have horrific, even lethal birth defects (see the foremost documentary on the effects of radiation, The Battle of Chernobyl.) 
     Our son and daughter-in-love are trying to get pregnant. I am already worrying about the health of our grandchild.
     

FUKUSHIMA: "A hell of a way to boil water."

     I know what you have read and heard about radiation from Japan: "Radiation is all around us in our daily lives, and these findings are a miniscule amount compared to what people experience every day. For example, a person would be exposed to low levels of radiation on a round trip cross country flight, watching television, and even from construction materials.”
     Even experts, who should be ashamed of themselves, are telling us that. This particular quote came from FDA senior scientist Patricia Hansen when informed that radioactive iodine-131 had been found in milk in Washington state on March 30. (Note: Here's the powerful response of five watchdog groups and a former senior adviser in the U.S. Department of Energy to the statement above.)
     When you read reports or hear individuals discounting radiation coming from Japan as equivalent to a single X-ray or mammogram, imagine that you go in for an X-ray and instead of pushing the button to release radiation for a fraction of a second, the tech tapes the button down, leaving it on and aimed at you, while s/he wanders off for coffee--or for a month's cruise. These discounters are comparing something that lasts for a fraction of a second with something that is lasting second after second, minute after minute, day after day, month after month for nearly 4 months now.  

     Ironically, because of the prevailing jet stream and ocean currents, we are getting more radiation from Japan here in the U.S. than in most of Japan. It was safer for Jerry and me to be in Hiroshima recently than at home in California.

     As Albert Einstein, who certainly should know, put it, "Nuclear energy is a hell of a way to boil water."   


P.S. Tonight Jerry and I watched The China Syndrome. Halfway through the movie, I realized I was shaking.

FUKUSHIMA: Is it safe for us to drink milk?

     My daughter called me from Oklahoma to ask whether it's safe for our 7-year old granddaughter to drink milk, in light of Fukushima. 
     I had to say I don't know. Uncontrolled radiation is apparently still pouring out of at least two nuclear reactors undergoing melt-through and is being carried to the United States (which is downwind) via the jet stream and ocean currents. I know there are hot spots of radiation in the U.S. but at present milk is only being tested for radiation in California. 
     The element that can make milk a health risk is Strontium-90, the radioactive equivalent of calcium. One of 200 radioactive substances nuclear bombs and reactors both produce which aren't found in nature, Strontium-90 seeks the bones and thyroid glands of growing children, especially babies in utero, settling there so calcium can't. Instead of benefiting growth, it causes thyroid and bone cancer. 
     So is it safe to drink milk in Oklahoma--or any other state in the Union? Well, if it rains in your part of the country, chances are carcinogens attached to those drops of water are penetrating your soil. If grass grows in that soil and cows eat that grass, they will be giving milk that to one degree or another is radioactive. You and your children will be getting additional amounts of radiation every time you drink it. 
     Even if those amounts are miniscule, they add up. On June 2, the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] admitted "there is no such thing as 'safe' levels of radiation.” They cited a 700-page July 30, 2005 report by the National Academies of Science concluding the same thing, that "there is no safe level of exposure to radiation—even very low doses can cause cancer." See FDA-comparison-radiation-milk-everyday-exposures-called-improper.
     Personally, Jerry and I have switched to almond milk, which contains 50% more calcium (calcium carbonate) than dairy milk and tastes yummy. 

Other studies done on food, including milk, since March 11:
June 1: Fukushima-radiation-found-in-california-milk-fruit-vegetables/
June 14: Cesium-134 reappears in test results of Bay Area milk/
June 30: Foxnews.com/health/2011/06/29/radiation-in-our-food/

FUKUSHIMA: Rising infant deaths in PA/Pacific Northwest

Click here: YouTube - IS IODINE-131 KILLING BABIES IN PHILADELPHIA? - INFANT DEATHS UP 48% SINCE REACTOR 3 EXPLOSION 

June 19, 2011

Dear Friends:
Here is a link (above) to the Fox-Philadelphia story on the rising infant deaths in Philadelphia (up 48% since late March) since the fallout from Japan arrived (Philadelphia had the highest levels in drinking water in the U.S.).

If you want to know more, I've also pasted on a press release and report now getting some coverage about rising infant deaths in the Pacific Northwest (up 35% since late March), where the highest levels of radiation in precipitation were found. 

Of course, there is much more study to be done, but this is the first indication that the Fukushima fallout that entered the air and diet - and human bodies - may have harmed Americans.

With kind regards,

Joe Mangano

Director, Radiation and Public Health Project 

Radiation.org
  

INFANT DEATHS SOAR 35% IN PACIFIC NORTHWEST ---

AREA HIT HARDEST BY JAPANESE NUCLEAR FALLOUT

Embargoed until 12 p.m. EST, June 9, 2011                                      Contact Joseph Mangano 609-399-4343

June 7, 2011 – Infant deaths rose 35% in the Pacific Northwest since mid-March, when fallout from the meltdowns at Japanese nuclear reactors reached the U.S., according to data published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and featured in a new report by health researchers.

Soaring infant deaths occurred in the region where the highest levels of environmental radiation were found in Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) samples, raising the possibility that there is a link between Japanese radiation and risk of infant death.

“The fetus and infant are highly susceptible to harm from radiation,” says Joseph Mangano MPH MBA.  “The Fukushima meltdowns are still releasing radiation, so trends should be monitored further,” he adds.  Mangano is Executive Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP), a New York-based health research group.  He is the author of the new report on Fukushima fallout in the U.S. and infant death trends.

The airborne radioactive plume from Japan reached the West Coast on March 17, six days after a powerful earthquake and tsunami caused meltdowns in four reactors at the Fukushima nuclear plant.  EPA data shows that most of the highest levels in the continental U.S. of radioactive Iodine-131 (I-131) in precipitation in late March were found in Idaho, northern California, Washington, and Oregon. 

The two highest precipitation levels found by EPA were in Boise ID (390 and 242 picocuries of I-131 per liter of water, hundreds of times greater than the typical level of about 2).  Along with Boise, samples from Richmond CA (near San Francisco), Portland OR, and Olympia WA made up 6 of the 10 highest measurements in the U.S.  I-131 is one of over 100 radioactive chemicals found only in nuclear reactors and atomic bombs.

Infant deaths reported to the CDC in eight northwestern cities averaged 9.25 per week for the four weeks ending March 19.  The average jumped to 12.50, a 35.1% increase, in the following 10 weeks.  Cities include Boise ID, Portland OR, and Seattle WA, plus the northern California cities of Pasadena, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, and Santa Cruz.  Total U.S. infant deaths increased 2.3% during this time.

Infant deaths are published in the CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.  They are preliminary (final figures are available in 2014), but are often similar to final data.  The CDC data can be accessed at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/mmwr_wk/wk_cvol.html; EPA data is at http://www.epa.gov/japan2011/rert/radnet_sampling_data.html#precip.

RPHP health researchers (www.radiation.org) have published 27 medical journal articles and 7 books on health hazards of radiation exposure.  Their work has been covered by the New York Times, USA Today, CNN, and Fox News.

(NOTE: Mr. Mangano has sent me all the figures backing up the evidence that these findings are caused by radiation from Fukushima. I can send them to anyone interested--or you can go to http://www.radiation.org/.)

Good websites

Nuclear Energy Institute (Click on News and Events link near top of page for official information about Japan's nuclear plants)

Surviving radioactive contamination

Fukushima updates (sane, objective, thorough)



MANY RELATED POSTS BELOW

Fukushima diary

Worker at Japanese nuclear plant putting their lives on the line


MANY RELATED STORIES BELOW

Radiation protection through nutrition? (not iodine supplements)

Also helpful: Iodine info for radiation exposure  This was sent me by a friend. The author apparently has a PhD in Nutrition and used to suffer the severe effects of radiation sickness. He strongly advises against  potassium iodide to protect the thyroid gland. The diet he argues for is at the end. Hi, mutual natural health-lovers,      As the radiation fallout cloud moves along the Eastward-bound jetstream to USA and Canada from Japan, the flurry of information on radiation protection has moved with it. Most of them focused on protecting the thyroid with an iodine supplement, that is, iodide or iodate. If you will investigate the Chernobyl crises of 25 years ago, the consumption of iodine did not prevent thyroid cancer, leukemia or bone cancers but promoted them. Blocking radioactive iodine from thyroids sends it to bones and bone marrow, increasing risk of leukemia and bone cancers. Appraisal of iodine      Any form of iodine that is not a natural part of fresh food is oxide, that is, it is rock. That includes any iodine supplement, even if the iodine were taken from a food source. Once it is processed into an isolated mineral, it is again rock, not food, whether powder, pill, or liquid. Animals cannot digest or utilize rock inter-cellularly, only plants can. . .      When animals consume iodine supplements, it collects as mineral deposits somewhere in the body. Most often, I have found it in intestines, nervous system, brain, bones and bone marrow. If it were true and iodine supplements protected the thyroid, trading thyroid cancer for blood and/or bone cancer seems ill-advised to me. The thyroid is close to the skin but bone-marrow and bone are very difficult to affect directly because lymphatic circulation into those areas is extremely limited and slow. Blood-flow into those areas is also limited.      Having experienced iodine radiation treatments along with mechanical radiation treatments for metastasized stomach cancer, and having suffered the side effects of blood and bone cancers caused by radiation treatments, I can tell you that radiation-poisoning is terrible.      I suffered constant nausea, vomit and often diarrhea for years following those treatments. For my body to try and counter the radioactive iodine, my body ate its own bones to obtain the minerals calcium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus to neutralize radioactive iodine and other radioactively charged minerals such as barium. I lost all of the bone around my teeth. When I closed my jaws and pressed teeth together, I bled profusely. I had up to 2 transfusions weekly.       After one year of consuming lots of raw dairy, my mandible bones restored and I could chew with very little gum bleeding. However, my gums remained purple (indications of radiation-poisoning) for decades and bleeding continued during teeth-brushing to this day, although very little, 43 years after radiation treatments. I suffered other radiation-poisoning symptoms for years.      Later, I was instructed by alternative doctors to consume colloidal iodine supplement. I did and it caused nausea, impotence and anxiety, the same symptoms as radiation-poisoning.       Non-bioactively bound iodine, that is, iodine that is not a natural part of fresh raw food is toxic to varying degrees. . . Generally, foods from the sea contain the most iodine, followed by other animal foods, and then plant foods. Of all foods seaweed, like kelp, is the most famous source of natural iodine however, humans digest about 2% kelp because it is a hard cellulose-based substance. Therefore, humans get almost no iodine from kelp. When it is cooked, humans can derive much more from it but all of the minerals are cauterized and relatively free-radical. Raw eggs and raw dairy products are the best sources, followed by raw meats.      The HHS, FDA and CDC have campaigned against empirically and scientifically-proved-to-be-healthful raw milk for decades. Why? Is it because they know its high mineral concentration and soothing, nerve-protecting fats counteracts just about every toxin on earth?  If raw dairy were harmful, it would not have helped heal me from the myriad of diseases I suffered. I would not be alive and well today. Raw dairy is 60% of my diet. The Masai, Samburu and Fulani thrived for thousands of years eating predominantly raw milk products.       We must be as logical and sensible at all times or we will fall prey to pharmaceutical chemistry-based nonsense. If the risks of environmental contamination are bearing down on us, we must be more resolute and cautious. Remedies for Radiation Contamination      Here are the things that effectively helped me reduce radioactive toxins and symptoms in my body: Organic no-salt raw cheeses eaten frequently will help absorb and neutralize free-radical radioactive minerals; aloe vera gel eaten directly from the plant (do not eat green skin) helps soothe and heal radiation burn; oranges and avocados eaten together help neutralize radiation; pineapple and no-salt raw cheeses eaten together help dissolve cellular radiation damage and harness byproducts; papaya eaten with no-salt raw cheeses helps prevent scarring; no-salt raw butter eaten with no-salt raw cheeses helps prevent radioactive minerals from entering cells; no-salt raw butter eaten with unheated honey helps digestion and healing; and one ounce of raw milk consumed once hourly helps protect intestines and nerves.    Happy survival, aajonus vonderplanitz, ph.d. nutrition WeWant2Live.com PrimalDiet.com (I deleted two or three paragraphs but can send them to anyone who wants them. JR)

Thoughts in the night

5:20 AM
A toothache woke me some time ago. I lie awake thinking of those in Sendai, Tokyo, Fukushima, trying to get to sleep. Some have beds but are self-sealed in their houses to maintain some semblance of protection from radioactive contamination. Some no longer have beds and are exposed to whatever contamination, cold, discomfort there is outside. Lord, may every child in Japan tonight have someone safe to take them into shelter and care for them. 

 I remember reading Randy Alcorn's book Safely Home, about an entirely different group of people hungry, cold and alone--Chinese Christians imprisoned for their faith. I remember a pastor in his book saying, "Pray that our shreds of clothes will keep us warm. Pray that God will keep our empty stomachs content. God has done that for us many times before." Something like that. Lord, keep Sendai survivors warm, whatever the temperatures. For those who still await rice ball handouts, somehow keep them feeling full, with energy to do what they need to do.

I cannot let this fear in, this fear I grew up with. Seven years old, spending recesses sitting on the playground on the Army base near Hiroshima, picking dozens or 4-, 5-, and 6-leaf clovers and wondering if mutations from the bomb accounted for their abundance. Sailing with my family into the Bikini nuclear testing zone as a 14-year old, wondering whether we would be irradiated for our audacity and if we were, which of the five of us would wear the single gas mask we had brought with us. Sailing to Siberia in winter to protest Soviet nuclear testing, wondering whether the Russians would sink our yacht before we could get close enough to the site to be irradiated.
     If I let it, this fear would become all-consuming, immobilizing, as it did when I was a teenager. This insidious, unseen danger would take over my life, the terror of the unknown combined with the terror of having no place to hide. Lord,  protect the Japanese people from fear, from post-traumatic stress. May they look past their gods of wood and stone to a God who can use His power for good as well as evil. May they know, as my first husband Rick put it, that "ultimate reality is Personal" and may they--and we--give You their anxiety in exchange for Your peace. 

How sadly ironic that we Americans who dropped the bombs (although we did not know they would keep on killing for thousands of years, we were just doing what had to be done to stop the insanity of the Japanese military) may now be consumed by the same panic as the survivors of those bombs: is this headache, this vague nausea, this ache in my bones, this diarrhea--in myself, my child--the beginning of radiation sickness? Will it affect my unborn child? Will it get worse? Is it lethal? Lord, Your word says to "look not at the seen but at the unseen." But these dangers are also unseen. May we focus not on the unseen terrors but on Your unseen grace. May we not be so absorbed with ourselves that we cannot care for those close to us. May we 'switch to trust" as Rick had to keep telling himself as he was dying.

Even as I sit here typing, it is hard not to think of this screen lighting up the darkness of our bedroom as a source of radiation. When I spend 12-14 hours in front of it as I have been doing since the 10th I come away with my face feeling sunburned, lips tingling, tongue sore but these sensations don't last long. Is the ache in my jaw which woke me up a sign of over-exposure? Microwaves, X-rays, mammograms, cat scans--I suspect them all and try to avoid them all, although the kinds of radiation and the half-lives differ and are mysteries to me. Radiation is cumulative and less is best.  
     Growing up I learned from my father's research on the children of Hiroshima that radiation is bad. Long-term effects cause cancers, specifically leukemia and thyroid cancer. They stunt growth. They compromise immune systems. We learned later that the effects even reach into future generations through mutations in our DNA. One of the three crewmen from Hiroshima who sailed around the world with us before our voyages became political later fathered three daughters, all deaf. Was that related to his exposure to radiation? Who can tell?
     If, as evolution claims, we "descended" from sea slugs to the pinnacle of humanity through mutations, how come mutations uniformly produce changes that are deleterious to the organism, rendering it less--if not non--functional? Lord, keep me from judgmentalism and sarcasm.

When I moved back to the States I was confused to find that here, radiation is good. Here radiation does not cause cancer, it cures it. Radiation kills, yes, but here we harness and direct it to kill only what we want it to kill. So when it comes in a cloud, poisoning our air, the ground our food grows in, the grass our cows eat,  the water we drink and the water our fish swim in, how can we harness and direct that radiation to kill only what we command it to? Lord, we are all in this together. Let there be no us and them. Let us as a human family look out for our common interests. We are all fragile, finite, and mortal. We have all fallen short of your glory. Let us give each other slack. 

Lord, as my brother Ted wrote in his poem (below) pass a wand over Sendai, Tokyo, and Fukushima tonight and give the works of Your hands there peaceful rest.


Related posts below 

Chernobyl as tourist attraction and wildlife sanctuary

Documentary about Chernobyl
      On April 25, 1986, there was a major, unprecedented nuclear accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the Ukraine. Although clouds of radioactivity (100 times the radiation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined) eventually poisoned to death 40,000 Soviet citizens, the population of nearby Pripyat and the workers who entombed the reactor, and though this radiation spread throughout Europe, causing increases in cancers, the Soviet government leaders at first did not know what was happening themselves (they had to find out from Sweden) and later downplayed the accident, claiming only 4,000 deaths.
     I was not aware until it was posted at The Buddhist Blog yesterday that original footage of the plant, the explosion, the (eventual) evacuation of Pripyat and the clean-up, and interviews with military leaders up to and including President Gorbachev existed. This documentary was filled with facts I didn't know about the disaster--for example, radiation destroyed even the robots used to bury the radioactive rods; teams of human beings could only work for 45 seconds at a time shoveling rubble off the reactor roof--and those who survived have lived with radiation illness ever since.
     My mother, Barbara Reynolds, took the Trans-Siberian Railroad across Russia sometime after this event. It must have been soon after, because she told me that as they approached Chernobyl, conductors pulled down all the window shades on one side of the train, forbidding passengers to look out. Passengers whispered among themselves rumors a nuclear accident had taken place there.

I know Chernobyl used a different kind of nuclear power and that it had no containment vessel but still: I STRONGLY URGE ANYONE WITH AN OPINION ON NUCLEAR POWER--FOR WAR OR PEACE--TO KEEP THEIR MOUTH SHUT UNTIL AND UNLESS THEY HAVE WATCHED THIS FILM.

On the (insanely) bright side: Even though radiation readings in the area around Chernobyl are still 100 times normal (the half-life of plutonium is 245,000 years) and it continues uninhabitable after 26 years, it has been labeled a game sanctuary for some time and is now being opened as an official tourist attraction.

Ukraine to open Chernobyl to tourists
Chernobyl wildlife sanctuary
Chernobyl, the toxic tourist attraction


Today I am thankful for special needs children.

Risks from fallout

Health risks from radiation depend on dose, duration

Do we in the States need to take "radiation pills"?

Potassium iodide pills and radiation

See also letter below by Joe Mangano, Executive Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project.

RELATED INFORMATION BELOW

From Joe Mangano, Executive Director of Radiation and Public Health Project

     I emailed Joe Mangano, Executive Director of Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP) with the following questions:

1. If radiation levels are increased in the United States, what are the benefits (if any) of taking iodine tablets to limit the effects of radiation on our bodies?
 
Hi Jessica: This is a tough time. One wants to give people information that is useful and that can protect them from radiation exposure, rather than scaring them. But there is the risk that people will get too complacent, thinking that all they have to do is take a pill and everything will be fine. Your choice about what to write, but here is a short list: POTASSIUM IODIDE (remember "iodide" not "iodine" - many make this mistake). This is a chemical that blocks radioactive iodine from penetrating the thyroid gland. It comes in pill form, and depending on the area, it can be obtained from a pharmacy. The problems with potassium iodide is that it must be taken BEFORE iodine enters the body; and that it only protects one organ of the body - it does nothing for the bone, brain, lung, soft tissues, etc.

2. Does stripping and hosing down someone exposed to radiation actually make any difference?

HOSING DOWN is a technique that can reduce radiation (external exposures) that would otherwise enter the body through skin penetration. But it does nothing to prevent INTERNAL exposures, i.e. those that enter the body through breathing, food, and water. There are some things that can be done to reduce radioactive intake through food and water. People talk about drinking condensed milk in a can, bottled water, and other measures. But I shudder to think about if/when the radiation gets to California, where the large majority of vegetables (and some fruits) in this country are produced. Again, there are limits. I don't know if this is helpful. Keep in touch.

Joe
Radiation and Public Health

Note: The link above, which is radiation.org, has many good articles on it, particularly those specifically about radiation from nuclear power plants.

 Japan Disaster Relief

RELATED INFORMATION BELOW

HEROES: 50 Fukushima heroes who may make the ultimate sacrifice

Excellent article on workers fighting to prevent a meltdown at  Fukushima Daiichi power plant: Nuclear plant workers emerging as heroic figures

RELATED INFORMATION BELOW

Links to my posts on radiation

These posts are all on my earlier blog, His Scribe.

Growing up in Hiroshima - Part 1

and Growing up in Hiroshima - Part 2

Series on our (Reynolds) family's protest of American nuclear testing in the Pacific in 1958, in the yacht Phoenix, posted Sept.14-27, 2010. This link will take you to Sept. 14. (Click on "Newer Post" at the bottom of each page to see subsequent pages.)

Nuclear weapons, the bombs that keep on killing

The Forbidden Voyage, my father's book about our sailing into the American nuclear test zone in the Pacific in 1958 to protest nuclear testing.

To Russia with Love

My recently-published book about our family sailing to the Soviet Union in 1960 to protest nuclear testing.

After we sailed to Russia with Love, posted Nov. 13-24, 2010.  Peace and anti-nuclear activities of our family following our voyage to the Soviet Union, including two Peace Pilgrimages to the nuclear powers by survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with my mother, Barbara Reynolds, and voyages to North Vietnam with humanitarian supplies in the Phoenix by my father, Earle Reynolds, during the Vietnam War. This link will take you to Nov. 13. (Click on "Newer Post" at the bottom of each page to see subsequent pages.)

The Tooth Fairy Project - 1

and The Tooth Fairy Project - 2

Deals with effects of radiation from nuclear power plants.


RELATED INFORMATION BELOW