Deadly North American Impact From Fukishima

Informal photo of the April 26, 2011 annual luncheon of the Radiation and Public Health Project. Yes, that's Alec Baldwin.

This morning in his peerless SchwartzReport, long-time friend Stephan A. Schwartz mentioned a study from the nonprofit Radiation and Public Health Project. Their study shows an “extra” 14,000 deaths in the United States are tied to Fukishima. Here’s the Radiation and Public Health Project’s press release announcing the results. From the press release, “The rise in reported deaths after Fukushima was largest among U.S. infants under age one.”

If you nose around at the Radiation and Public Health Project site, you’ll see names mentioned who include Dr. Helen Caldicott, Alec Baldwin and Christie Brinkley. Also take a look at Caldicott’s editorial about Fukushima, “Unsafe at Any Dose,” from the April 30, 2011 New York Times’ Opinion pages. Her lead sentences: “Six weeks ago, when I first heard about the reactor damage at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan, I knew the prognosis: If any of the containment vessels or fuel pools exploded, it would mean millions of new cases of cancer in the Northern Hemisphere.” Caldicott also reminisces: “… it didn’t take long for the early nuclear physicists in the Manhattan Project to recognize the toxicity of radioactive elements. I knew many of them quite well.”

Do you still think we can safely handle nuclear power? The sum total of this scenario should compel you revisit the idea that we – and Gaia – can handle low-level toxicity.