Photo from Chernobyl Heart (2003) by Maryann DeLeo
"[A] woman in her fourth month of pregnancy was contaminated with 137Cs [radioactive cesium]" The concentration of 137Cs in the mother (0.91 kBq/kg bw) was similar to that in her newborn child (0.97 kBq/kg bw) 1."
Children in Belarus, Ukraine and certain provinces of Russia tell us what to expect from a massive radiation contamination such as Japan is currently experiencing. Radiation attacks the young to a harsher degree than it does adults, and yet we do know that it kills adults. Radioactivity causes numerous illnesses including terminal cancers, and not just from a large initial dose but over time from absorbed emitting particles inside the body.
A senior nuclear adviser to the Japanese Prime
Minister, professor Toshiso Kosako resigned in protest from his
government. This as the Japanese government raised the level of
permissible exposure to schoolchildren twenty fold, from 1mSv/year to
20mSv.
The atomic power industry, it can be proved, has been an unprecedented catastrophe for mankind.
One of the world's leading experts on radionuclide contamination is Dr. Yury Bandashevsky based in Minsk, Belarus. Near Chernobyl's "ground zero" Bandazhevsky has published hundreds of scientific papers and has studied the radioactive contamination absorbed by children there for decades.
The parents of northern Japan had best investigate Dr. Bandashevsky's dietary recommendations. He's found that apple pectin helps remove radioactive cesium-137 from the body.
However, food grown and animals grazed in contaminated regions will pass along radiation to human populations for centuries. The Japanese reliance on fish will soon produce another shock to their nation as larger fish absorb more radioactive particles up the food chain.
Dr. Bandashevsky has placed hard numbers on the dangers of
internal contamination from radiation,
"Chronic Cs-137 levels over 30 Bq/kg body weight is often associated with serious cardiovascular diseases 2."
For children with cesium 137 in excess of 50 Becquerels/kg body weight, "pathological disorders of the vital organs or systems will occur 3." These levels can produce grotesque malformations in newborn babies and increase the risk of spontaneous abortions.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) says, "Both 134Cs and 137Cs emit beta particles and gamma rays, which may ionize molecules within cells penetrated by these emissions and result in tissue damage and disruption of cellular function 4."
Expecting Japanese mothers should flee the north of Japan as quickly as possible. Abandon the region for the sake of their children's safety. Fetuses are in imminent danger and are many times more vulnerable to radiation than are adults.
How much radiation is Japan bathed in right now?
Nature magazine online reported that soil 40km northwest of the plant contained, "Cesium-137 levels of 163,000 becquerels per kilogram (Bq/kg) and iodine-131 levels of 1,170,000 Bq/kg, according to Japan's science ministry 5."
Tellingly, the new official "exclusion zone" is only a 30km radius from the plant. This means that those living atop the irradiated soil described above will not even be prompted to leave. Most will not. They will eventually return to life as usual. Only the colorless, tasteless, odorless radioactive isotopes will poison their families ceaselessly for the rest of their lives. Cesium, strontium, iodine and other radionuclides will continue to attack life forms in that contaminated environment despite any hollow assurances to the contrary.
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