1 in 200 Japanese children at risk of cancer from Fukushima radiation

http://www.nuclearfreeplanet.org/blogs/cleanenergyorg-japan-nuclear-disa...

As reported by Reuters today, the situation is still many months from being over, and many significant complications remain. Current estimates are that it will take six to nine months just to stabilize the facility, and several decades to decommission it.

The handling of the disaster has prompted public backlash directed toward the Japanese government. A highly criticized decision to raise radioactive exposure doses for children to the amount allowed for nuclear workers (20 millisieverts per year) has caused an international outcry. This would mean that school children could be exposed to 20 times more radiation than the amount previously permissible. A special radiation expert advising the government on the issue recently quit, saying the new standards are “inexcusable.” On Tuesday, over 350 Japanese citizens delivered an international petition signed by organizations and individuals from over 40 countries urging the government to reverse its decision. Parents also presented bags of radioactive dirt from their children’s school yards to Japanese government officials. Some of these samples had radioactivity levels as high as 38 millisieverts on a Geiger counter. Physicians for Social Responsibility also blasted the increase in allowable radiation exposure in a highly critical statement: “[Twenty millisieverts] for children exposes them to a 1 in 200 risk of getting cancer. And if they are exposed to this dose for two years, the risk is 1 in 100. There is no way that this level of exposure can be considered ’safe’ for children.”