Title: POINT OF VIEW/ Katsuno Onozawa: Government’s lethargic response stresses Fukushima mothers
Source: THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Date: April 30, 2013
Katsuno Onozawa, a doctor of psychosomatic medicine, who has taken part in children’s health consultations in Fukushima Prefecture
What shocked me the first time I participated in January of last year was the gap between what the newspapers and TV news were reporting and the reality in Fukushima as attested to by the mothers [...]
Wanting to protect their children from radiation, they pleaded with the prefectural and city governments and local doctors, but none would take their side.
They just said things like, “It’s safe. You don’t have to take any special action. There are lots of radiation-phobia mothers, and we can’t deal with them all.”
[...] I was at a loss for words because of these mothers’ situation, and I could not sleep at night because I was so enraged at the government’s heartless response. [...]
Yet the children were
exhibiting a range of symptoms including sore throats, nosebleeds, diarrhea,
fatigue, headaches and rashes. The most dangerous thing is to write off causes
of illness as psychosocial factors with statements like, “Your child’s stress
comes from not being able to go outdoors” and that a “mother worrying will make
her child sick.” [...]
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