There’s been “an increase of about 35 percent in deaths of babies under 1 year old in Boise, Seattle, Portland and the northern California cities of Santa Cruz, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose and Berkeley,” states a June 16 Eugene Weekly report that references a CounterPunch.org story from June 10 by Dr. Janette D. Sherman and Joseph Mangano that documents the deaths after reviewing National Center for Health Statistics. Also, the baby deaths in these combined cities “average 9.25 per week in the month before the Fukushima meltdown. And, 12.5 per week in the months following the disaster.”

Infant deaths along West coast due to massive leaks of radiation from Japan

The infant death statistics are according to local doctors and federal agencies that monitored the Fukushima meltdown since the Japan earthquake and Tsunami from March 11.

Local reaction to the recent reports that Japan’s nuke meltdown is now linked to infant deaths in both the Pacific Northwest and California, includes a statement from Pacific Green Party spokesman Blair Bobier who said in the June 16 Eugene Weekly that “nuclear power is dangerous under the best of conditions and disastrous under the worst.”

At the same time, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has called on her country to “shut down its remaining nuclear plants” over the next decade.

Japan admits to double its estimate of radiation released downwind to West coast

“Japan's nuclear safety agency has more than doubled its estimate of the amount of radiation released into the atmosphere from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant,” stated ABC News Australia June 7. And plutonium believed to have come from the plant has also been found in a town near the facility - the first time plutonium has been found in soil outside the facility.”

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says “it believes the earthquake-stricken Fukushima plant emitted nearly 800,000 terabecquerels of radioactive material into the air in the days after it was hit by a massive Tsunami,” ABC News Australia reported, while also noting “that is more than double the original estimate and is based on new information suggesting the No.1 and No.2 reactors suffered meltdowns much earlier than thought. The revision reveals the failure to contain the disaster resulted in much more radioactive contamination of the soil, sea and air than the plant's operators had acknowledged.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Sherman and Mangano -- who reported their findings on infant deaths linked to the Fukushima meltdown -- stated how “spewing from the Fukushima reactor are radioactive isotopes including those of iodine (1-131), strontium (Sr-90) and cesium (Cs-134 and Cs-137) all of which are taken up in food and water.”

The authors of this report also note that “iodine is concentrated in the thyroid, Sr-90 in bones and teeth and Cs-134 and Cs-137 in soft tissues, including the heart.”

Moreover, they state that “the unborn babies are more vulnerable because the cells are rapidly dividing and the delivered dose is proportionally larger than that delivered to an adult.”

Dr. Sherman and Mangano’s full report on the rise of baby deaths in West coast communities -- in the wake of the nuclear meltdown in Japan March 11 -- can be found at http://wkly.ws/121.

Children in Japan are also under watch for deadly nuke poisoning

A recent BBC report also points to children and concerned parents from Japan calling for greater protection from nuke fallout, while protests against nuclear power continue in both Japan and German.

“Japan's Fukushima city is to give radiation dosimeters to 34,000 children to measure their exposure from the tsunami-hit nuclear power plant. All children aged between four and 15 will wear the devices for three months, and data will be collected monthly. The city lies about 60km (37 miles) from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which was badly damaged in the March 11 quake and Tsunami. More than three months on the facility is still leaking radioactive material,” stated a recent BBC News report.

Image source of nuclear power protest in Japan in the wake of the Fukushima disaster: Wikipedia



Reference: Eugine Weekly