PRESS RELEASE - Janette D. Sherman, MD
12-19-2011
This report, "
An Unexpected Mortality Increase in the United States Follows Arrival of the Radioactive Plume from Fukushima: Is There a Correlation?" published in the Internat. J. of Health Sciences today,
is not new science, but confirms research done over the decades as to
adverse effects caused by radioisotopes to the unborn and the very young
because of their rapidly developing cells, immature immunological
systems and relatively small weight.
As background, in the 1950s, I worked for the Atomic Energy
Commission (the forerunner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) at the
Radiation Laboratory, University of California in Berkeley and the US
Navy Radiation Laboratory at Hunter's Point in San Francisco. Near 60
years ago, we learned that radiation could damage animals and plants and
cause cancer, genetic damage, and other problems.
The issue of the danger from nuclear power plants is not just the
engineering, but biology and chemistry. We have understood for decades
where and how radioisotopes interact with life systems.
Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 have half-lives of approx 30 years.
It takes 10 half-lives for an isotope to fully decay, thus it will take
300 years or Three Centuries before radioactive cesium and strontium
will be gone. Cs134, Cs-137 and Sr-90 continue to be released from Fukushima in
tons of contaminated water that is making its' way across the Pacific
Ocean. Cesium concentrates in soft tissue, strontium in bones and
teeth, of the unborn and young.
Immediately after Chernobyl the level of thyroid disease increased. Given the large amounts of radioactive iodine (I-131) released from Fukushima, thyroid disease will develop in
those exposed in Japan, as well as in those exposed to lesser amounts
throughout the northern hemisphere. Public health officials need to
anticipate and prepare for these findings.
The highest levels of I-131 measured by EPA in precipitation varied
from a high of 390 pico Curies (pCi) in Boise to 92 in Boston, with
intermediate levels in Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Jacksonville and
Olympia, WA. (Normal is @ 2 pCi)
Not every system was evaluated after Chernobyl, but of those that
were: wild and domestic animals, birds, fish, plants, fungi, bacteria,
viruses - even humans - were altered by the radiation, often for
generations. Birds in the 30-kilometer "exclusion zone" of Chernobyl display
small brain size, alterations of normal coloration, poor survival of
offspring, and poor adaptability to stress,
Recent, independent studies conducted in Scandinavia shows a
decline on academic performance in children exposed during the Chernobyl
fallout. 80% of children in Belarus are considered un-well by government standards.
Unless the earth stops tuning, and the laws of biology, chemistry
and physics are rescinded, we will continue to see sickness and harm
spread to the children of Fukushima, the same that occurred after
Chernobyl. We ignore history at our peril.
More information available at:
www.janettesherman.com
www.radiation.org
