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This video clip is from the Q&A session after the lecture by an actor-and-anti-nuke-activist Taro Yamada (man on the right), at the “National Forum of School Lunch” held in Sapporo City on November 6、2011. The death of the member of the special rescue unit of the Fire Department, whom the questioner in the video is talking about, hasn’t been confirmed officially nor reported in MSM. The person called “Dr. Sakiyama” in the video is Dr. Hisako Sakiyama, a specialist in radiation exposure at Takagi School and ex-chief researcher at National Institute of Radiological Sciences. She was a researcher at MIT before working for the Institute. Translation and captioning by tokyobrowntabby.

Transcript Excerpts On October 26, a friend of mine in Osaka passed away. He was a rescue squad member and had been sent to work in disaster-affected areas for a long time, such as Iwate or Fukushima. In July, he was found to have been internally exposed to radiation. All his team members had been, too. But their mission didn’t end. [...] Eventually they got sick and realized they couldn’t continue their duties any more. All the team members including him quit the rescue squad. Before they quit, they had been berated by their supervisors as unpatriotic. In a little more than 3 months since his internal exposure was found in July, my friend vomited blood frequently and finally died of renal failure.

About renal failure after a nuclear catastrophe (via study): The main pathologies in both districts [near the Chernobyl meltdown] were anemia of pregnancy, renal disorders, transient hypertension, and abnormalities of fat metabolism.

Teeth and toenails falling off and clumps of hair coming off, she reports in her blog. She doesn't seem to care any more if people dismiss her as fabricating the story, and just tells as a matter of fact what's been happening to her and her husband, probably both in their early 40s. They live in Minami Soma City in Fukushima Prefecture, within 25 kilometers from the wrecked plant. The district she and husband live have somehow escaped the designation of any "evacuation zone", even though she says the radiation is just as high or higher.

From the entry on 1/2/2012:Went to see the dentist on duty for the holidays, as I just couldn't stand the pain of my "dens caninus" tooth which was all exposed to the nerve.However, no matter how I explained to the dentist, he kept insisting that it would never go bad like this in such a short period of time (3 months).When I told him that my dental treatment had been completed before March 11, he didn't believe it. He just said "It's not possible".He said this could only happen if one didn't brush one's teeth for 2 to 3 years.I simply lost interest in trying to explain. My husband was there, and he tried to tell him, but he shut up when the doctor said "I only accept objective data."Until this summer, my teeth were healthy. My teeth were sturdy. Until this summer.

From the entry on 12/31/2011, on her friend's hair:A very good friend of mine since high school just dropped by to say hello. We occasionally talked over the phone about my head (balding and hair falling off) and her condition. She's 42 years old.She came wearing a wig. When she took it out, I had no words to say.She evacuated [after the accident] to the inland area near the Fukushima-Miyagi border. But when the reactors were exploding and when the vent was being done, she was right near by [in Minami Soma].

Hormonal and other irregularities were detected in the thyroid glands of 10 out of 130 children evacuated from Fukushima Prefecture, a Nagano Prefecture-based charity dedicated to aid for the victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident said Tuesday. The Japan Chernobyl Foundation and Shinshu University Hospital did blood and urine tests on youngsters aged up to 16, including babies under age 1, for about a month through the end of August in Chino, Nagano, when the children stayed there temporarily after evacuating from Fukushima. No clear link has been established between the children's condition and the radiation from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, according to the nonprofit organization. "At present, we cannot say the children are ill, but they require long-term observation," said Minoru Kamata, chief of the foundation.

As a result, one child was found to have a lower-than-normal thyroid hormone level and seven had thyroid stimulation hormone levels higher than the norm. The remaining two were diagnosed with slightly high blood concentrations of a protein called thyroglobulin, possibly caused by damage to their thyroid glands. Three of the 10 children used to live within the 20-km no-go zone around the nuclear plant and one was from the so-called evacuation-prepared area.

This kind of posts will be “unconfirmed” forever. A Japanese citizen talked about his own symptoms on a Japanese forum. In his case, a bruise appeared on his stomach and it does not hurt even if he touches it. This is only one of the many cases posted on the internet. I expect someone who got through Chernobyl or has radioactive medical knowledge to see this picture. His symptoms are: canker sore Diarrhea ←me too Anemia Vertigo Bleeding from gum High blood pressure Nausea after eating something Itchy eyes ←me too Bad eye sight ←me too Ringing in the ears ←me too Muscle pain even though he did not work out ←me too Sore throat ←me too He suffered from these symptoms until this summer. They still come out on and off. Recently he suffers from constant pain around belly, bowel, and bladder. He analyzes it’s from internal exposure.

Google Translation – Salt former mayor ga Nasu sudden death, Yomiuri, Dec. 5, 2011 (Emphasis Added): Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture Salt Plains Mayor Li Chuan Ren 4 ga day and night, chest artery Tumor The city hospital for acute rupture. He was 67. Funeral to be determined. [...] At around 20:06 yesterday afternoon, out suffering suddenly while on the line of the staff had taken during a meal at home, was taken to hospital by ambulance, 59 minutes at 7 as has been confirmed dead other. In December 2006, when hospitalized for rectal cancer surgery, surgery on the thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm was found were not. In October, was hospitalized for two weeks bacterial enteritis. [...]

IPPNW, Berlin: “A study carried out by the World Health Organisation (WHO) of liquidators in the Russian Federation, found a statistically significant increase in blood and endocrinal diseases, as well as a significant increase in gastro-enteritis, infections and parasite-related disease. According to Russian information, many invalided liquidators suffer from inflammatory gastroenteritis.” Wikipedia: “In medicine, enteritis, from Greek words enteron (Small Intestine) and suffix -itis (Inflammation), refers to inflammation of the small intestine. It is most commonly caused by the ingestion of substances contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms.[1] Symptoms include abdominal pain, cramping, diarrhea, dehydration and fever.[1] Inflammation of related organs of the gastrointestinal system are [...] gastroenteritis”

Japanese government lifted evacuating area from Minami soma shi on 9/30/2011. However,about 30,000 of 71500 people have not come back yet. Medical staff escaped too. Hospitals are suffering from shortage of man power though they should evacuate actually. Minamisoma city hospital is one of the major hospitals ,where is only 23 km from the Fukushima plants.

In this hospital ,doctors and nurse evacuated too. Full time doctor ; 14 → 8 Nurse ; 136 → 100 Beds ; 230 → 100 Apart from Minami soma city hospital , 2 of 8 hospitals were closed , 13 of 39 clinics were closed too.

There were about 900 medical staff but now it’s only 300 in total. Remaining medical staff are thinking that’s because the national support is not enough. Fukushima local government therefore has decided to spend 2 billion of 12 billion yen of tax allocation grant for medical care on these areas. It will be spent to re-employ evacuated doctors or hire new doctors.

One specialist, Nishio Masamichi, director of the Hakkaido Cancer Center, who initially called for "calm" in the early days following the disaster, wrote recently in a top Japanese business journal that the crisis has caused Japan's "myth of nuclear safety" to fall apart.

Nishio, according to this independent report, says it's time to confront the very real prospect of long-term radiation exposure, and has accused TEPCO executives of hiding the truth about the real damage caused by the disaster at the expense of saving the company. He also laid some blame for the way the aftermath of the disaster was handled on the country's leadership, saying Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his Cabinet lacked urgency and direction.

Regarding TEPCO, Nishio said the company gave broken dosimeters to temporary workers and only giving monitors when they are working, despite high levels of radiation throughout the entire site. He also accused the company of putting its workers in a gymnasium-type structure to sleep in order to keep them from running away.

Professor Kodama is the head of the Radioisotope Center at the University of Tokyo.Professor Kodama's anger is now directed toward the government's non-action to protect people, especially children and young mothers, from internal radiation exposure. His specialty is internal medicine using radioisotope, so he says he has done the intense research on internal radiation:

I have been in charge of antibody drugs at the Cabinet Office since Mr. Obuchi was the prime minister [1998-]. We put radioisotopes to antibody drugs to treat cancer. In other words, my job is to inject radioisotopes into human bodies, so my utmost concern is the internal radiation exposure and that is what I have been studying intensely.

The biggest problem of internal radiation is cancer. How does cancer happen? Because radiation cuts DNA strands. As you know, DNA is in a double helix. When it is in a double helix it is extremely stable. However, when a cell divides, the double helix becomes single strands, doubles and becomes 4 strands. This stage is the most vulnerable.

"The radiation from this unreported but very dangerous event was released without protecting the residents of Fukushima Prefecture -- especially the children. But the radiation was detected at elevated levels from 2:30 AM until 7:30 AM on a monitor in Ibaraki Prefecture. How many Curies were released? When will this nuclear war against the Japanese people and the Northern Hemisphere ever end? Instead of evacuation, the government gives the children (sick with radiation symptoms) film badges to measure the external exposure dose ... another study group like US govt. studies on Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims (they are still being studied), Iraq victims, Gaza victims. And the US government did the same thing to Americans during 1,300 nuclear bomb tests in the US."

And if that's not enough bad news, we have another big problem. Here at home we have two Nebraska nuclear power stations located near the Missouri River, and one is already submerged in flood waters. A hole torn in a 2,000-foot, inflatable barrier placed around the facility allowed over several feet of water to pour into containment buildings and electrical transformers at the plant. This disaster was reported -- and then quickly silenced -- by mainstream media. Cooper Nuclear Station, one of the nuclear power plants in the area, declared a "Notification of Unusual Event" after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released massive amounts water from two dams. This event is ongoing. ...

I wish I knew how all of this will play out. All I know is sometimes we all feel like we're just communities of puny little ants who can never change a thing. But don't despair, for we are many ... and when we combine our numbers, we are a very powerful force! I truly believe that we are the ones we have always waited for. As a lover of American Indian culture, I recall an old Indian wise man once said...

Scientists and doctors are calling for a new national policy in Japan that mandates the testing of food, soil, water, and the air for radioactivity still being emitted from Fukushima's heavily damaged Daiichi nuclear power plant."How much radioactive materials have been released from the plant?" asked Dr Tatsuhiko Kodama, a professor at the Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology and Director of the University of Tokyo's Radioisotope Centre, in a July 27 speech to the Committee of Health, Labour and Welfare at Japan's House of Representatives. "The government and TEPCO have not reported the total amount of the released radioactivity yet," said Kodama, who believes things are far worse than even the recent detection of extremely high radiation levels at the plant. There is widespread concern in Japan about a general lack of government monitoring for radiation, which has caused people to begin their own independent monitoring, which are also finding disturbingly high levels of radiation. Kodama's centre, using 27 facilities to measure radiation across the country, has been closely monitoring the situation at Fukushima - and their findings are alarming.According to Dr Kodama, the total amount of radiation released over a period of more than five months from the ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster is the equivalent to more than 29 "Hiroshima-type atomic bombs" and the amount of uranium released "is equivalent to 20" Hiroshima bombs.

Kodama, along with other scientists, is concerned about the ongoing crisis resulting from the Fukushima situation, as well as what he believes to be inadequate government reaction, and believes the government needs to begin a large-scale response in order to begin decontaminating affected areas.Distrust of the Japanese government's response to the nuclear disaster is now common among people living in the effected prefectures, and people are concerned about their health.Recent readings taken at the plant are alarming.When on August 2nd readings of 10,000 millisieverts (10 sieverts) of radioactivity per hour were detected at the plant, Japan's science ministry said that level of dose is fatal to humans, and is enough radiation to kill a person within one to two weeks after the exposure. 10,000 millisieverts (mSv) is the equivalent of approximately 100,000 chest x-rays.

t is an amount 250 per cent higher than levels recorded at the plant in March after it was heavily damaged by the earthquake and ensuing tsunami. The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), that took the reading, used equipment to measure radiation from a distance, and was unable to ascertain the exact level because the device's maximum reading is only 10,000 mSv. TEPCO also detected 1,000 millisieverts (mSv) per hour in debris outside the plant, as well as finding 4,000 mSv per hour inside one of the reactor buildings.

Kiwamu Ariga skirted the paddies of ripening rice, moving briskly despite his 81 years to reach a pile of yellowish rocks at the foot of a steep, forested hillside.

It was here that, as a junior high school student in the final months of World War II, Mr. Ariga and his classmates were put to work hacking rocks out of the hill’s then exposed stone face until the blood ran from their sandaled feet. The soldiers told them nothing beyond instructing them to look for stones with brown or black spots.

an officer finally explained what they were after: “With the stones that you boys are digging up, we can make a bomb the size of a matchbox that will destroy all of New York.” Mr. Ariga said he did not learn other details of Japan’s secrecy-wrapped efforts to build an atomic bomb until years after the war.

Despite the increase, the levels were still well below the amount considered harmful to humans and they posed no health risks to residents at the time, according to researchers at The University of Texas at Austin. The findings, published by a mechanical engineering professor at the Cockrell School of Engineering and researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), provide important insight into the magnitude of the disaster. They also demonstrate huge advancements in the technology that's used for monitoring nuclear material and detecting covert nuclear operations around the world.

"I think the conclusion was that this was a really major event here," Cockrell School of Engineering Associate Professor Steven Biegalski said of the Fukushima disaster. Biegalski was on a faculty research assignment at PNNL in Richland, Washington. Its here that, using technology that Biegalski helped improve, he and a team of researchers were the first to detect radioactive materials from Fukushima in the U.S.

The material detected, Xenon 133, is of the same chemical family as helium and argon and is an inert gas, meaning it does not react with other chemicals. The gas is not harmful in small doses and is used medically to study the flow of blood through the brain and the flow of air through the lungs. Tracy Tipping, a health physicist and laboratory manager at The University of Texas at Austin's Nuclear Engineering Teaching Laboratory, said the average person in the U.S. receives about 16.4 microsieverts of radiation dose per day from various sources of naturally occurring radiation, such as radioactive materials in the soil, cosmic radiation from outer space and naturally occurring radioactive materials within the body. In Washington, the increased levels from Fukushima meant the daily dose during that time could have been about 16.4017. A harmful amount that would cause obvious symptoms of exposure is anywhere from two to three million microsieverts at one time, he said

Related Story Content Story Sharing Tools Share with Add This Print this story E-mail this story Related Related Links Japan PM feared nuclear disaster worse than Chornobyl Special Report: Disaster in Japan Japan ignored own radiation forecasts FAQ: Radiation's health effects Timeline of events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex FAQ: Nuclear reactorsAccessibility Links Beginning of Story Content TOKYO –

 Related Story Content Story Sharing Tools Share with Add This Print this story E-mail this story Related Related Links Japan PM feared nuclear disaster worse than Chornobyl Special Report: Disaster in Japan Japan ignored own radiation forecasts FAQ: Radiation's health effects Timeline of events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex FAQ: Nuclear reactors Accessibility Links Beginning of Story Content TOKYO –  The scars of Japan’s March 11 disaster are both glaringly evident and deceptively hidden. Six months after a tsunami turned Japan’s northeast into a tangled mess of metal, concrete, wood and dirt, legions of workers have made steady progress hauling away a good portion of the more than 20 million tonnes of debris covering ravaged coastal areas. The Environment Ministry says it expects to have it all removed by next March, and completely disposed of by 2014. 'I think Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), as well as the Japanese government, made many mistakes.' —Shoji Sawada, theoretical particle physicist But a weightless byproduct of this country’s March 11 disaster is expected to linger for much longer.  The Japanese learned a lot about the risks posed by radiation after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Now, once again, they are facing this invisible killer. This time, the mistake is of their own making. "I’m afraid," says Shoji Sawada, a theoretical particle physicist who is opposed to the use of nuclear energy .  Sawada has been carefully monitoring the fallout from the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. “I think many people were exposed to radiation. I am afraid [they] will experience delayed effects, such as cancer and leukemia.” Evacuation zone Japan's government maintains a 20-kilometre evacuation zone around the Fukushima Daiichi plant, with no unauthorized entry allowed. The government has urged people within a 30-km radius of the plant to leave, but it's not mandatory. Some people say the evacuation zone should include Fukushima City, which is 63 km away from the plant. At the moment, the roughly 100,000 local children are kept indoors, schools have banned soccer and outdoor sports, pools were closed this summer, and building windows are generally kept closed. A handful of people argue the government should evacuate all of Fukushima prefecture, which has a population of about 2 million.  Sawada dedicated his career to studying the impact radiation has on human health, particularly among the survivors of Japan’s atomic bombings. His interest is both professional and personal. When he was 13 years old, his mother urged him to flee their burning home in Hiroshima. She died, trapped beneath rubble . “I think Tokyo Electric Power Company [TEPCO], as well as the Japanese government, made many mistakes,” he says. Those mistakes have been clearly documented since the earthquake and tsunami triggered meltdowns and explosions at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi, some 220 kilometres northeast of Tokyo. Warnings to build a higher tsunami wall were ignored; concerns about the safety of aging reactors covered up; and a toothless nuclear watchdog exposed as being more concerned with promoting atomic energy than protecting the public

The scars of Japan’s March 11 disaster are both glaringly evident and deceptively hidden. Six months after a tsunami turned Japan’s northeast into a tangled mess of metal, concrete, wood and dirt, legions of workers have made steady progress hauling away a good portion of the more than 20 million tonnes of debris covering ravaged coastal areas. The Environment Ministry says it expects to have it all removed by next March, and completely disposed of by 2014.

The Italian nuclear engineer and safety expert Cesare Silvi explains why he left his former pro-nuclear stance for solar and other renewable energy sources: “I soon came to the conclusion that neither international cooperation nor technological advancements would guarantee human societies to build and safely run nuclear reactors in all possible conditions on Earth (earthquakes, floods, droughts, tornadoes, wars, terrorism, climate change, tsunamis, pandemics, etc.). I am sadly reminded of this turning point in my life as I listen to the news about the earthquake, tsunami and extremely worrying nuclear crisis in Japan.”

Silvi warns that “there will definitely be worse accidents” if we continue with nuclear power: “Why not consider Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima as warnings of greater catastrophes to come and avoid the inevitable by shutting them down, much like changing your diet and/or lifestyle after finding out that your cholesterol or blood pressure is elevated, rather than continuing down the same path until a heart attack or stroke strikes?” According to Silvi the world could easily replace nuclear power simply by reducing our energy usage and introducing energy efficiency programs: “Nuclear today only generates about 12 percent of the developed world’s electricity. By instituting an energy efficiency program,” Silvi suggests, “we could fill the gap caused by shutting them all down and put this malevolent genie back into the bottle.”

In Ichinoseki shi, Iwate, a 15 year old student died of subarachnoid hemorrhage at his junior high school.

A subarachnoid hemorrhage, or subarachnoid haemorrhage in British English, is bleeding into the subarachnoid space—the area between the arachnoid membrane and the pia mater surrounding the brain. This may occur spontaneously, usually from a ruptured cerebral aneurysm, or may result from head injury. Symptoms of SAH include a severe headache with a rapid onset (“thunderclap headache”), vomiting, confusion or a lowered level of consciousness, and sometimes seizures. The diagnosis is generally confirmed with a CT scan of the head, or occasionally by lumbar puncture. Treatment is by prompt neurosurgery or radiologically guided interventions with medications and other treatments to help prevent recurrence of the bleeding and complications. Surgery for aneurysms was introduced in the 1930s, but since the 1990s many aneurysms are treated by a less invasive procedure called “coiling”, which is carried out by instrumentation through large blood vessels.

SAH is a form of stroke and comprises 1–7% of all strokes. It is a medical emergency and can lead to death or severe disability—even when recognized and treated at an early stage. Up to half of all cases of SAH are fatal and 10–15% of casualties die before reaching a hospital, and those who survive often have neurological or cognitive impairment. SOURCE Though the connection with radiation is not “clear”, radiation level was higher than 10 micro Sv/h at the play ground. The radiation level was not announced to the students and parents. He belonged to a sport club, spent a lot of time at the playground. He fainted inside of the school building. When he was sent to the hospital, he was unresponsive. He died there. At this school, even inside of the classroom, it is over 0.5 micro Sv/h. (Source)