There is no safe dose of radiation.
We do
not x-ray pregnant women.
Any
detectable fallout can kill.
With erratic radiation spikes, major air and water
emissions and at least three reactors and waste pools in serious danger
at Fukushima, we must prepare for the worst.
When
you hear the terms "safe" and "insignificant" in reference to
radioactive fallout, ask yourself: "Safe for whom?" "Insignificant to
which of us?"
Despite
the corporate media, what has and will continue to come here from
Fukushima is deadly to Americans. At very least it threatens countless
embryos and fetuses in utero, the infants, the elderly, the unborn who
will come to future mothers now being exposed. (
http://nukefree.org/arnie-gundersen-radiation-dangers )
No
matter how small the dose, the human egg in waiting, or embryo or fetus
in utero, or newborn infant, or weakened elder, has no defense against
even the tiniest radioactive assault.
Science
has never found such a "safe" threshold, and never will.
In the
1950s Dr. Alice Stewart showed a definitive link between medical x-rays
administered to pregnant women and the curse of childhood leukemia
among their offspring.
After a
fierce 30-year debate, the medical profession agreed. Today,
administering an x-ray to a pregnant woman is universally understood to
be a serious health hazard.
Those
who pioneered the health physics profession---towering greats like Dr.
Karl Z.Morgan and Dr. John Gofman---set a definitive, impenetrable
standard. A safe dose of radiation does not exist. All doses,
"insignificant" or otherwise, can harm the human organism.
That
has been repeatedly shown in major studies---done most notably by Dr.
ErnestSternglass, Jay Gould, Joe Mangano, Arnie Gundersen, Dr. Steven
Wing (
http://nukefree.org/tmia-bloomberg-dr-ed-lyman-developments-fukushima )and
others---showing that among human populations near commercial reactors,
infant death rates plummet once the reactors shut down.
In
1979, 32 years ago this March 28, the owners of Three Mile Island said
therewas no meltdown, no serious radiation release and no need for
evacuation.
All
were lies.
To
this day no one knows how much radiation was released or where it went
or who it killed.
TMI's
owners ran ads dismissing the emissions as the equivalent of a single
chest x-ray given to everyone within a ten mile radius.
But
that included all the pregnant women.
Soon
infant death rates soared in nearby Harrisburg. Some 2400 central
Pennsylvania families sued based on the health impacts.
The
death and mutation rate among farm and wild animals was also thoroughly
documented by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and a team of
investigators from the Baltimore News-American.
We
were again told there were "no health dangers" from radiation that hit
California from Chernobyl ten days after that 1986 explosion. But bird
births at the Point Reyes National Seashore quickly dropped 60% from the
levels that had been carefully monitored and recorded through the
previous decade.
The
cloud then crossed the northern tier of the United States. Heightened
radiation levels were found in milk in New England---as they were
throughout Europe from clouds that had blown from Chernobyl in the other
direction.
The
doses were neither "insignificant" nor "safe" to those far or near.
In
Russia ten years later, I interviewed dozens of downwind victims, and
many of the 800,000 "liquidators" who ran into Chernobyl's seething
corpse to helpclean it up. After TMI, it was dà ©jà vu all over again.
The
most recently published findings, from a compendium of more than 5,000
studies,indicate a global Chernobyl death toll in excess of 985,000, and
still counting. (
http://www.nukefree.org/node/1828 ).
Today
we are assaulted by yet another radioactive death cloud from yet
another"perfectly safe" nuclear plant.
Fukushima's
radiation is pouring into the air and water. The operators have
reported radiation levels a million times normal, then retracted the
estimate to a "mere" 100,000. Workers are being exposed to doses that
are certain to be lethal. At least three of the reactors, and one or
more of the spent fuel pools, hover at the brink of catastrophe.
Fukushima's
radiation has now been detected in Los Angeles and Sacramento, and has
blown east across North America. It has also been detected in Sweden,
which means it's blowing across Europe as well.
Radiationis
not being released as a single puff. Rather it's a steady stream
thatcould yet turn into a tsunami.
Fukushima's
worst may be yet to come. Its collective emissions are virtually
certain to exceed Chernobyl's.
And
yet we continue to hear smug, misinformed "experts," TV meteorologists
and industry talking heads saying these are "safe" doses.
The
response of the Obama Administration has been beyond derelict. As the
accident began, the President went on national television to assure us
there was nothing to worry about, and that he would continue to demand
$36 billion in loan guarantees to build new nuclear plants.
Since
then, even as the Fukushima crisis mounts, President Obama has remained
silent.
Millions
of Americans have heard about potassium iodide (KI), which can be used
block the uptake of radioactive iodine and perhaps protect the thyroid.
But KI
can have potential medical side-effects for some individuals. And
timing can be critical. To say the least, we need to know when the
radioactive fallout is present.
Yet
the administration has not provided us with a national supply of KI, or
guidance for using it.
At
very least we need reliable real-time mapping of the radioactive clouds
as they cross the nation. Every American should be issued a mask, and
sufficient KI pills with directions on how to use them, if necessary.
Above
all, we need national leadership that puts the health of our people
first and foremost.
Americans
who are of reproductive age---and their unborn, our babies, the
elderly, those of us who may be specially sensitive---we all deserve
better.
As we
have learned so tragically from Drs. Stewart, Morgan, Gofman and
Sternglass, from Gundersen and Mangano and so many other researchers,
from TMI and Chernobyl, and from the on-going operation of nuclear
plants where infant death rates continue to be affected---a "perfectly
safe" dose of radiation does not exist.
No
truly informed or responsible scientist, medical doctor, health
researcher, TV weatherman, bloviating "expert" or on-the scene reporter
would ever tell you otherwise.
Whenever
you hear the term "insignificant" fallout, ask yourself:
"insignificant to whom?"
"Acceptable"
to which expectant mother? To whose child? To how many mourning
parents? For which dying elder?
Nuclear
reactors make global warming worse and prolong our addiction to fossil
fuels. They stand in the way of our transition to a totally
green-powered Earth.
As we
continue to learn at such a huge cost, there can never be a "perfectly
safe" nuclear reactor, any more than there can be a "perfectly harmless"
dose of radiation.
"Impossible"
accidents continue to happen, one after the other, each of them
successively worse.
What
we fear most about TMI, then Chernobyl and now Fukushima, is not what
has happened---but what is yet to come, there, and at the next
inevitable reactor disaster.
We are
a pro-life movement.
Please
call the White House, the Congress and your state and local governments
and DEMAND they protect the health and safety of our people in the face
of this on-going disaster.
I'm a college English teacher working on my dissertation. I am an anime junkie and a Shakespeare scholar, a voracious reader and a political rebel.