STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 9 March 2012

[Demeter]

17. Trauma, Not Radiation, Is Key Concern In Japan

TRAUMA SHOWS UP BEFORE MOST RADIATION CONSEQUENCES....

http://www.npr.org/2012/03/09/148227596/trauma-not-radiation-is-key-concern-in-japan?ft=1&f=1001

..."Surprisingly, there have been no health effects that have been demonstrated among the Japanese people or among the workers," says John Boice, a cancer epidemiologist at Vanderbilt University. To be sure, "there was radiation released. It was about a tenth of what was released from Chernobyl," he says. "But most of the releases were blown off to the Pacific Ocean. The winds were blowing to the sea and not to populated areas."

One big cloud did blow inland, up toward the northwest. But most of the 170,000 residents in the area were quickly evacuated. Boice says that helped limit dangerous doses. So did other quick actions by the Japanese government. "They prohibited the release of any food that had had increased levels of radiation in them," he says. "So there wasn't milk out there in the public supply. There wasn't any fish that had levels that were increased."

And that's a huge difference from the aftermath of Chernobyl. In 1986, the Soviets let people eat contaminated food and drink contaminated milk, activity that led to many cancers. In Japan, Boice says the only people with significantly elevated doses are the nuclear workers. And as a result, a few workers are at slightly higher risk for cancer...

NOT COUNTING THE SUICIDE WORKERS, ONE MUST ADD...They work until they reach the occupational radiation limit of 50 millisieverts in a year, then they go home. But they don't know what their risk really entails...