‘Cesium In Pollen Not Viewed As Health Risk’ (Japan Times) Versus ‘Actual Fukushima Worker Warns To Get Out Of Japan Before Spring Comes’

– Actual Fukushima Worker Warns To Get Out Of Japan Before Spring Comes

These journalists are still NOT distinguishing between internal and external emitters:

– Are There Safe Levels of Radiation? How Much Radiation Is Safe?:

Radiation exposure is increased by a factor of a trillion. Inhaling even the tiniest particle, that’s the danger.

Yo: So making comparisons with X-rays and CT scans has no meaning. Because you can breathe in radioactive material.

Hirose: That’s right. When it enters your body, there’s no telling where it will go. The biggest danger is women, especially pregnant women, and little children. Now they’re talking about iodine and cesium, but that’s only part of it, they’re not using the proper detection instruments. What they call monitoring means only measuring the amount of radiation in the air. Their instruments don’t eat. What they measure has no connection with the amount of radioactive material.

Dr. Helen Caldicott (Co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility):

– The Propaganda From The Government And The Nuclear Industry About Low-Level Radiation Is Absolute Rubbish:

You’ve bought the propaganda from the nuclear industry. They say it’s low-level radiation. That’s absolute rubbish. If you inhale a millionth of a gram of plutonium, the surrounding cells receive a very, very high dose. Most die within that area, because it’s an alpha emitter. The cells on the periphery remain viable. They mutate, and the regulatory genes are damaged. Years later, that person develops cancer. Now, that’s true for radioactive iodine, that goes to the thyroid; cesium-137, that goes to the brain and muscles; strontium-90 goes to bone, causing bone cancer and leukemia. It’s imperative … that you understand internal emitters and radiation, and it’s not low level to the cells that are exposed. Radiobiology is imperative to understand these days.”

If you are inhaling hot particles every day, then your health will certainly be affected.

– Cesium in pollen not viewed as health risk (Japan Times, Nov. 1, 2011):

The Forestry Agency believes cedar pollen next spring contaminated by cesium fallout from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant will be well below the legal safety limit.

The exposure from inhaling cesium-contaminated cedar pollen circulating from Fukushima Prefecture will have a maximum radiation reading of 0.000132 microsievert per hour, the agency said, based on a recent calculation of fallout affecting cedar needles and leaves.

In June, the education and science ministry studied cedar leaves in the town of Kawamata, located about 45 km from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, and determined the cesium-134 and -137 levels ranged from 54,300 to 177,600 becquerels per kilogram.

The Forestry Agency used those results to estimate the radiation exposure from pollen grains. If the level of contamination was 177,600 becquerels per kilogram and the concentration of pollen grains — a gauge of pollen density that shows how many grains are floating in 1 cu. meter of air — was 2,207, the exposure would be equal to 0.000132 microsievert per hour.

On average, the concentration of pollen grains is 89 in the Kanto region, but the calculation used 2,207, the highest figure recorded in the region in the past eight years.

The legal radiation exposure limit is 1 millisievert per year. If someone is exposed to 0.12 microsievert per hour for 24 hours over 365 days, it would equal about 1.05 millisieverts per year.

However, the entire mechanism of radiation transfer through cedar pollen remains a mystery.

Yoshihisa Matsumoto, an associate professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and a radiation expert, said he is unaware of any research regarding the transfer of radioactive materials on cedar leaves to pollen.

But he said it would be hard to imagine that the contamination level would be higher when the cesium is transferred to pollen.

Because the male cedar flower, which has pollen grains, becomes mature around this season, the agency will conduct tests from this month to January.

Fukushima has about 185,000 hectares of cedar forests.

Hiroki Matsumoto, an official at the agency, said cedar pollen is so light it can fly hundreds of kilometers, meaning it can reach densely populated Tokyo and surrounding areas.

He said cedar pollen that reaches Tokyo usually is carried by wind from the east, which means generally from Gunma, Saitama, Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures. But weather conditions could bring pollen from Fukushima, he added.

Matsumoto of the Tokyo Institute of Technology said even if the pollen is contaminated, people can use regular pollen-preventive tools to protect themselves.