Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Appeal for saving children in Fukushima - 20mSv/y zone is not a safe place

Do you remember that last spring the Japanese government announced that they were going to allow children to live within the 20mSv/y zone?  Mr. Kosako who is well respected professor and was the advisor to the former Prime Minister, resigned in protest at the government’s decision, saying that it went completely against his ethics as a scientist and a grandparent.  Although the government quickly retracted its statement after intense criticism from its own citizens and people around the world, and said that they would aim at 1mSv/y, they have still done nothing to help the children.  Soon after the explosion, citizens living within a 20 –km radius of the plant were evacuated, and those living 20-30km from it were forced to live with their doors and windows shut.  Even Fukushima city, which is about 50km from the plant, is no longer safe for children.  The Watari area is particularly dangerous, since it has many hotspots. 
Avvaz.Org has been collection signatures to petition the Japanese Prime Minister to evacuate citizens from the Watari area.  If the government decides to evacuate them, it would benefit many other citizens in other areas with similarly high radiation levels.  In Chernobyl, nobody has to live in areas where the radiation level is more than 5mSv/y unless they want to.  In Japan, the government applies the ICRP model for emergency situations as a normal one, and treats 20mSv/y areas as safe places to live so they do not have to evacuate people from such areas.  We shouldn’t allow this false sense of security to remain unchallenged, otherwise it could be foisted on the rest of the world as well.


To sign the petition, please go to this link:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_fukushima_children_1/

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