Deniers Shuttled Out For Fukushima One Year Anniversary, Others Find Spike In US Deaths

This coming March 11 will mark the first anniversary of Fukushima’s multiple meltdown nuclear disaster.

The mainstream media has already begun trotting out assorted “experts” to assure us all is well and no one’s been harmed by all the radiation the reactors released.

For example, on March 2, The Wall Street Journal-Japan ran a piece, “Fukushima Health Impact: Minimal?”

It lead off, “The health threat from radiation in the wake of the Fukushima accident is extremely low…according to a panel of American radiation experts who studied the Japanese case for the past year.”

The WSJ reported that this panel, which remained unnamed, made a presentation in Washington DC on March 1, exact location unrevealed.

One panel member said, “From a radiological perspective, we expect the impact to be really, really minor.”

“I received more radiation on my flight from Tokyo to Washington DC than I did at the reactor site,” said another.

Perhaps because of remarks like this, the reporters did include one dissenting opinion, hence the question mark at the end of their title.

14, 000 US Dead, 800+ Babies

But another message came from an earlier study. A peer reviewed article in the December edition of the medical journal International Journal of Health Services found that “An estimated 14,000 excess deaths in the United States are linked to the radioactive fallout from the disaster of the Fukushima nuclear reactors,” a press release for the article asserted.

“The rise in reported deaths after Fukushima was largest among US infants under age one." the press release continued. '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.” This worked out to be over 800 excess infant deaths compared to the previous year during the same time period.

Epidemiologist Joseph Mangano and internist/toxicologist Janette Sherman MD co-authored the article. Both work with the Radiation and Public Health Project (radiation.org).

Note that their study is about post Fukushima deaths in the US, not Japan.

The authors reached these disturbing conclusions after analyzing federal government data for Fukushima fallout in the US, and mortality statistics in the 14 weeks after that fallout reached the US.

“Just six days after the disastrous meltdown struck four reactors at Fukushima on March 11, scientists detected the plume of toxic fallout had arrived on American shores,” the authors’ press release stated. “Subsequent measurements by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found levels of radiation in air, water and milk hundreds of times above normal across the US.”

For example, radioactive Iodine 131’s normal level in precipitation is 2 picocuries per liter. But after March 17, a measurement in Boise, ID, was 390. Another in Salt Lake City was 190. Jacksonville, FL had one of 150, Olympia, WA 125, Boston 92.

Mortality data came from the Center For Disease Control’s “weekly reports on mortality in 122 US cities…representing 25 to 35 percent of the nation’s deaths.” It covered the 14 week period following Fukushima’s initial hot stuff passed over the US, the study reported.


The authors found “During weeks12 to 25, total deaths in 119 US cities increased from 148.395 (2010) to 155,015 (2011), or 4.46 percent. This was nearly double the 2.34 percent rise in deaths (142,006 to 145,324) in 104 cities for the prior 14 weeks.

Further computations “projected 13,983 excess deaths in the US in weeks 12-25 of 2011.”

Using the same methodology, the authors found that “Between 2010 and 2011, the total number of infant deaths for weeks 12 to 25 rose 1.8 percent (2674 to 2722), compared with a 8.37 percent decline (2520 to 2309) in the prior 14 week period.”
After similar computations this “projected 822 excess infant deaths in the 14 weeks after March 19, 2011.”

In their press release announcing the release of the study, co-author Janette Sherman wrote, “Based on our continuing research, the actual death count 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 underdeveloped immune systems, and the doses of radioisotopes are proportionally greater than for adults.”

Co-author Joseph Magano stated in the release: “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 of the Radiation and Public Health Project, and author of 27 peer reviewed medical journal articles and letters, the press release reported.

For more info: radiation.org
baywood.org
International Journal of Health Services, Volume 42, Number 1, Pages 47-64