I have to agree, this is very suspect especially in light of another story on Huffington Post today - Mutant Butterflies Found After Fukushima Nuclear Disaster in Japan. It's clear there have been significant impacts to then environment. If it affects insects it impacts the entire food chain. This is irresponsible reporting.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/14/fukushima-mutant-butterflies_n_1777180.html

The butterflies are noted as being extremely radiosensitive. This might relate to chromosome volume. I remember vaguely from a graduate radiobiology course I took that this was the case regarding radiosensitivity in species.

Chernobyl released seven times more radionuclides than Fukushima. The no-entry area near Chernobyl is now a rare preserve for wild animals in the area. One of the few populations of wolves in Europe thrives in the area. A great documentary called "Wolves of Chernobyl" (or something to that affect) was on PBS that detailed this revival of wildlife in Europe. The point of this is that different animals and organisms have different sensitivities to radiation, and directly correlating mutations in one species of butterflies to the impact on the greater environment is not valid.

something to that effect... rather than something to that affect...my apologies.

Mutant butterflies... Sadly true... Before you go fear-mongering there are several things to understand here:

1. They are thousands of times smaller than humans
2. They had remained in the irradiated zone much, much longer than humans did
3. They are extremely sensitive to environmental changes

Also you should understand that these mutations did not affect ALL of the butterflies that were collected, only about a quarter of them had mutations. Now, don't get me wrong here. There will be problems with future generations, but they will be minimal and no where near as severe as those found in the butterflies. Nor as severe as the people affected by Chernobyl.

The differences between Chernobyl and Fukushima:

1. Chernobyl was fully operational during the explosion
2. Fukushima was shut down due to the quake and exploded 4 days later
3. Chernobyl fire was a carbon fire, where 1,200 tons of carbon burned releasing irradiated smoke into the air
4. Fukushima does not have carbon in its reactors

The radiation released at Fukushima is estimated to be 100,000 times less than Chernobyl due to the above facts.

So... any questions?

Sure, Einstein.

Care to explain the hundreds of mutated planets, fruits, and vegetable that are appearing all over Michigan?

Or maybe the multiple other studies coming out of Japan that indicates that people are losing their teeth, finger nails, and hair due to "stress"?

Or that the f__king Imperial Family was moved to Southern Japan?

Or the massive animal die offs?

Or the hundreds of videos showing radiation meters going berserk?

Yeah. Explain that, genius.

Elp Tique: Yablokov's study was widely discredited, effectively disowned by the US publisher, and thoroughly debunked by some time in 2009. You can read some of the history of the document here: http://atomicinsights.com/2011/10/devastating-review-of-yablokovs-chernobyl-consequences-of-the-catastrophe-for-people-and-the-environment.html.

Moped: (a) What studies "coming out of Japan that indicates that people are losing their teeth, finger nails, and hair due to 'stress'"? Can you cite any?

(b) When was "Imperial Family was moved to Southern Japan"? It must have been in the last, oh, 9 hours or so, as they were living in Tokyo this morning. (Though I guess the Japanese government could have set up a mock Tokyo somewhere so realistic that even the 20 or so million of us living in the real Tokyo area have not caught the deception yet.)

The butterfly study is available here: http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/120809/srep00570/full/srep00570.html.

I would suggest reading it, as the person who posted the Huffinton Post summary seems to have misunderstood it.

"The president of Aeon, Okada Motoya is brother of Okada Katsuya, the deputy Prime Minister.
The founder of Aeon is the father of Okada Katsuya.

Also, the Imperial family was offered to move some of the members from Tokyo to Kyoto by Kyoto governor and Kyoto city mayor.

On 7/26/2012, Yamada, Kyoto governor and Kadokawa, Kyoto city mayor offered Fujimura, chief cabinet secretary to move some of the Imperial family members. This is also for the risk of the earthquake to hit Tokyo directly supposedly.
Yamada, Kyoto governor talked to the media at official residence, “We need to consider the risk of the current state that most of the members of Imperial family are living in Tokyo.”

"It is an immune disease caused by stress. Teeth, nails, hair falling off, that’s auto-immune disease. So is skin inflammation. Time-lag (?). It is not caused by radiation, but she is still a victim of the nuclear accident. There’s individual difference. There may be some effect of radiation exposure.

Difference in radiation levels. I passed through Minami Soma City back in March. High levels of radiation. If you lived in that area it is possible that the radiation exposure has something to do with (the health problems). Depending on where you live, if the radiation level is low, it is possible that the problems are caused by stress."

LOS ANGELES — Radioactive iodine was found in kelp off the US West Coast following last year’s earthquake-triggered Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown, according to a new study.

It was already known that radioactive iodine 131 (131-I), carried in the atmosphere, made it across the Pacific within days of the March 11, 2011 tsunami disaster, albeit in minuscule amounts.

But marine biologists at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) discovered the radioactive isotope in ocean kelp, which is “one of the strongest plant accumulators of iodine,” within a month of the accident.

“We measured significant, although most likely non-harmful levels of radioactive iodine in tissue of the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera,” said Steven L. Manley, author of the study with Christopher G. Lowe

“Although it is probably not harmful for humans because it was relatively low levels, it may have affected certain fish that graze on the tissue because fish have a thyroid system that utilizes iodine.”

Polar bears with Alopecia and skin lesions in the Beaufort Sea. March 21, 2012. Photo courtesy USGS.

Biologists have found Polar Bears in the Beaufort Sea with hair loss and skin lesions. Those are the same symptoms that have sickened ice seals and walruses in the arctic since last summer and led the federal government to declare the incident an unusual mortality event. Scientists are just beginning an investigation into whether polar bears are suffering from the same thing.

(ANIMAL NEWS) CALIFORNIA — Bluefin tuna caught off the coast of San Diego are carrying radiation contamination from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. It is the first case of a large migratory fish species carrying radiation over a large distance, startling some researchers. With bluefin tuna already suffering from overfishing, read on to find out what could be in store for this marine species and others that could be contaminated. — Global Animal

"... Al Jazeera put out this video about Fukushima residents. They are reporting various 'new' illnesses, such as nausea, bleeding noses, teeth falling out, rashes, hair falling out, fatigue, and other illnesses, which may be caused by low dose internal radiation exposure. These started happening right after Fukushima melted down and exploded."

"...The Japanese government and nuclear 'authorities' say that low dose radiation exposure is 'safe' and will not harm anyone, although they have reduced the amount of radiation allowed in food by up to twenty times from the 'old' emergency 'safe' amount allowed. "

REPORTS OF DEATH AND RADIATION POISONING

Keiko Ichikawa is the author of “A Letter From Fukushima” and she asked various medical workers why very few deformed children are even seen in Japan and if this shall continue to be the case due to the nuclear fallout. She was told, “That is, Ms. Ichikawa, because we are made not to know”. Deformed babies were either declared still born or aborted and were omitted from the statistics.

It was confirmed by a public security guard that many policeman dispatched toFukushima had died from radiation poisoning.

A Fukushima author related during an interview that she lost 8 teeth and her nails fell out. Other effects were diarrhoea for two months, numbness of fingers, arm and neck, which passed after one and a half months. She also started losing hair from November and her husband suffered from nose bleeds.

According to the peer-reviewed International Journal of Health Services, 14 000 Americans have already died in theUnited States due to the radiation fromFukushima.

The author of the study says:

“An estimated 14,000 excess deaths in the United States are linked to the radioactive fallout from the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, according to a major new article in the December 2011 edition of the International Journal of Health Services. This is the first peer-reviewed study published in a medical journal documenting the health hazards of Fukushima.”

It was calculated by comparing the excess of 14 000 deaths in the 14 weeks after the Fukushimameltdowns and the 16 500 excess deaths observed after theChernobylmeltdown in 1986. The most numerous deaths were that of American one year olds fromFukushima. The infant deaths for 2010-2011 in the spring increased to 1.8 percent compared to a decrease of 8.37% in the 14 weeks leading up to the Fukushima meltdowns.

However, a Scientific American blog post and Med Page Today dismissed the study as “voodoo science”. The former does concede however that radiation fromFukushima is very dangerous and could lead to negative health effects even across the Pacific.

Nuclear engineer Gunderson says that there will be 1 million deaths inJapanand there were be an increase of cancer on the West Coat of America andCanada. The most radioactive places are considered to bePortlandand the Cascades.

WhenceOnce -

I can pretty much say? You are out of your flipping mind if you DON'T think there is something gone horribly wrong in Japan.

You are out of Kool-aid slurping little mind.

There are HUNDREDS of these articles - in both Japanese and English - floating around.

Japan is DEAD. They're pretty much all -dead.-

That whole island is going to become a massive radioactive nightmare. Their exports have already tanked. Their economy is doomed.

Jesus Christ, Whence.

Moped (at #1.9) is quoting from a post at http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/08/largest-supermarket-chain-and-imperial-family-move-their-back-up-in-western-japan/. The post does not support Moped's claim that the Imperial family or any member of it has been moved or will move from Tokyo.

At #1.10, Moped could have copied from any of several sources that pop up if one uses Google to search for the exact phrase "Depending on where you live, if the radiation level is low, it is possible that the problems are caused by stress." This is one example: http://ex-skf.blogspot.jp/2012/01/nuclear-fatigue-setting-in-japan-after.html. It provides minimal backing for Moped's claim at #1.5 and no justification for Moped's addition of quotation marks to the word "stress" at #1.5 and no support whatsoever for Moped's claims in #1.5 of "multiple other" studies.

WhenceOneWonders is a Kool-Aid Drinking Know Nothing "Intellectual" who is pretending that the horrors of Radiation do not exist and that they can be "explained away" by appearing to be a quasi-intellectual Know It All.

We'll see exactly how much WhenceOneWonders -doesn't- know in about five-to-ten years, won't we, moron?

@ ChrisWanker

> Chernobyl was a single reactor running at about 7 percent capacity when ruptured.

> Fukushima had three reactors running at 100 percent capacity and seven other reactors with spent fuel pools that were crippled.

> Chernobyl stopped releasing radioactive material after about two weeks, this is not the case at Fukushima (over a year).

> Genetic Mutations from radiation exposure are up to 100 times higher than anything we have encountered in the animal kingdom - Dr. Fernex, former WHO Consultant

The problem with "radiation" and "radiation poisoning" is that it doesn't matter how much someone wants to "wish it away" or "pretend it is something else" -

It's all very lethal,
It's all very permanent,
And it sticks around a whole lot longer than our "scientists" seem to realize - as a number of researchers are discovering to their utter horror.

By the way - the US just terminated all new licensing of Nuclear Power Plants across America, brainchild.

They've also halted a number of plants in California -indefinitely- because of catastrophic failures in their reactor coolant systems.

You would have to be a drooling lobotomized -idiot- NOT to realize how dire this situation is or how -dangerous- this stuff actually is.

Moped: Are you even reading the stuff you are copying and pasting? Go back and take a look at your post at #1.15. Then take a look at the original sources and see if you still want to stand behind what you're posting.

For example, if you understand statistics, for example, you'll see the study purportedly showing 14,000 excess deaths is patent nonsense, exactly as is noted in the critiques you so helpfully provided links to.

If you understand Japanese, you'll realize looking at the original video in which Ms. Keiko Ichikawa is speaking that her words are mistranslated in the subtitles. Of course, if you've been to Japan, you'll have realized that Ms. Ichikawa's silly comments about the absence of "deformed" children are silly, there being no such absence.

Meanwhile, you're correct about Japan's economy's being in bad shape, but that, alas, is a situation that began long before the problems at Fukushima occurred. Fukushima and environs are certainly messed up (or at least were the last time I was there, in September 2011, or the last time I talked to someone living there, that is, yesterday).

I don't doubt that a small insect such as a butterfly may manifest greater effects from radiation than a larger organism such as a human. The manifestation of DNA damage in a larger organism may be more subtle, take multiple forms and be less obvious but it's just silly to pretend there isn't any. I don't like "fear-mongering" either, but making nice and telling people everything is OK just smacks of something I like even less: I'll call it "dumb-mongering".

All that panic over nothing.

Moped,

I've gotta agree with WhenceOneWonders. You are NOT reading your sources very closely, if at all.

BTW, Michigan? Seriously? It's called "Fasciation", which is what you're referring to, and is normally caused by bacterial or viral infections or exposure to chemicals... If radiation has a major factor in fasciation, there there should be tons of pictures of Chernobyl fauna (or even Three Mile Island, Hiroshima, or Nagasaki fauna) that are severely mutated. Try doing a Google search and find a link about Chernobyl's fauna WITHOUT reference to Fukushima. If you can find a valid link, post it... Because in the VERY short time I spent on it, I couldn't find one.

And lastly... Kool Aid drinking? What are you... in Jr. High? Low blow attacks as such are pathetic. If you want to make such comments there are plenty of video gaming forums that immature kids troll regularly. You should check them out. You might fit in.

Sorry... For flora propagation people have been known to use gamma radiation to change the genetic make up of the plant in order to create new species. Nonetheless, fasciation is more commonly caused by bacterial or viral infections or exposure to chemicals.

Kool Aid drinking - as in you seem to be magically willfully ignorant of -anything- that's actually going on.

And if you're one of those people that is just "ignoring" what's happening and -PARROTING- the "It's all just FINNNNE" rhetoric -

Not only are you White Washing the painful deaths and poisoning of hundreds of thousands of people,

You are actually -part- of the problem by perpetuating these Lies.

This -isn't- about a pissing contest. This is about brain-dead or worse WILLFULLY efforts to try to hide or obscure the gravity of this situation. Which is inherently vile and repulsive.

I know what Kool Aid Drinking is. What I'm saying is that it is painfully immature and arrogant.

And... NO! You are actually -part- of the problem by perpetuating these Lies. Laladialaladaaa... PBBBT!

Seriously, learn how to debate like a normal educated adult.

Now, if you don't mind... I'm going to go drink some Kool Aid and contemplate why I WASTED my time posting this retort to you.

The radiation released at Fukushima is estimated to be 100,000 times less than Chernobyl due to the above facts.

So... any questions?

Yeah. Where do you get that figure?

According to government research released in Japan, 36 percent of children from Fukushima Prefecture -- the area around the March 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant meltdown -- who were exposed to radiation now have abnormal growths on their thyroid glands.

The survey examined more than 38,000 local children, and found that more than 13,000 had thyroid cysts or nodules, a rate that is much higher than the average population, where an estimated 0.5-1.0% of children have thyroid cysts. According to Japanese authorities, while they don't know that the radiation exposure is the cause, they will be monitoring the effects on the area's children in upcoming years.

According to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper in Japan, an independent National Institute of Radiological Sciences study reported in the summer of 2012 that they found "lifetime thyroid doses of radiation in Fukushima children."

http://thyroid.about.com/b/2012/08/06/fukushimas-children-facing-high-rate-of-thyroid-irregularities.htm

And

Also you should understand that these mutations did not affect ALL of the butterflies that were collected, only about a quarter of them had mutations

is incomplete.

Yesterday's MSNBC article states that although the first observed batch had a 12% population with indications of abnormalities -

Even more alarming, when he collected another 238 samples six months later he found that those abnormalities had increased to 28 percent and the mutations had doubled to 52 percent in their offspring.

Hmmm... sorry. I don't think I really care enough to give a wholehearted response to your LATE attempt at keeping this debate alive. In fact, I didn't even read what you posted.

Do you understand that any "reliable" study will require at least approximately seven-to-ten years worth of data to provide any conclusions?

Do you understand that "political bias" or that non-peer reviewed papers that seem to completely ignore a mountain of contradicting evidence DON'T seem to be that believable for some reason?

Sort of like claiming that "Cigarettes" are good for human beings (supposedly supported by "RESEARCH"
from the 60s and 70s)

Moped: Which research, exactly, proported to show that cigarettes are good for human beings? Any citations (not just unsourced cutting and pasting)?

Moped,

If it will take 7-10 years worth of data to prove any conclusions, then why are you spamming this message board with your claims that the Japanese people are totally screwed?

If it takes 7-10 years, then you can't possibly know anything. You're just spouting off random, copy & pasted out of context (with no sources given) garbage.

Captain Ozone: "Acute [l]eukemia is already spiking in Japan. Some people have their hair and teeth falling out and severe bruising all over their bodies." Any sources?

You have already been provided sources, zombie.

Stop -demanding- sources.

I've seen multiple people give you sources for everything that's been told to you. Stop acting like a nine year old child.

Moped,

I haven't seen anyone making absurd claims offer a source when WhenceOneWonders asked.

I did see you spam a bunch of stuff that you copied and pasted from various blog sites but I wouldn't call those "sources."

I think you should start -demanding- sources because the information you've been posting has been wildly inaccurate at best.

You might want to learn to understand what he's saying to you.

Check out the truth about Fukushima at enenews dot com

He can back up everything being said here, there.

Good luck to you. Kind of.

Look athe video, the background level is about 0.05-0.10 microSv/h, not 20-70 microSv/h, that is dangerously high!

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Jason935: Sorry, but I do live in Tokyo and have for more than 20 years. Please check my comments again and those to which I was responding: you'll see that I did not deny that stress has mounted and was extremely high especially in the first week or so after the Fukushima disaster began to unfold. I was noting that Moped was indiscriminately quoting things to support a position that they do not support; Moped was trying to imply that the described symptoms were caused by radiation.

As for grocery stores not being able to give away food from Fukushima, Iwate, and environs, that is simply untrue: just go to a grocery store and check the sources of the products you see there: you'll see that produce from the prefectures most heavily hit by radiation--note that I write "the prefectures," not "the towns"--is readily available. (I came back from Life, for example, not 20 minutes ago and brought home edamame from Iwate, but I confess to going out of my way to buy products from the affected areas.)

[Sorry, but I don't like anime and, though I know who AKB48 are, I prefer Sigh and Love Psychidelico, or B'z in a pinch.]

WhenceOneWonders,who apparently live in Japan can doesn't seem to be aware of the weekly / daily protests of the Japanese governments, the TEPCO workers who are being -ordered- to deliberately cover their dosimeters to lower the readings.

Sure. You are from Japan.

You are not a paid commentator who is just "haunting" anything to do with Fukishima and trying to "White Wash" away anything.

Yes. Sure....

Moped: In which post did I imply or hint that I was not aware of the protests? For that matter, in which post did I imply or hint that I have not taken part in protesting?

In which post did I imply or hint that I was not aware that one subcontractor employed to insulate hoses at the Fukushima power plant encouraged workers (not "TEPCO workers") to cover their badges with lead strips (and who was apparently obeyed by some of the workers for one day)?

Sorry, but all I've done here is ask for sources, check those supplied, and then pointed out how they did not support the positions they were purported to support. Though I suppose I'd be flattered, finally, to be offered money to have made these remarks, it would surprise me if I were: it's not like it's hard work.

@Moped: People - DO NOT LISTEN to WhenceOneComes

The handle is "WhenceOneWonders", and Whence's posts are far more accurate, reasonable, and adult.

@Moped: Stop -demanding- sources.

If you can not provide a respectable source for your claims then they are meaningless. Are you unwilling, or unable, to source your fantastic claims?

Anyone can make stuff up. But don't act all surprised when you are called on it.

@Moped: Care to explain the hundreds of mutated planets, fruits, and vegetable that are appearing all over Michigan?"

I'm in Michigan (which I suppose you'd care to dispute, since you refuse to believe that Whence is in Japan?). I'm sitting in the middle of one of the world's premiere agricultural regions, among fields that I worked in as a teen and young adult. I'm not a farmer, but I'm also not ignorant of what's going on in the fields and orchards of this state. I'm not aware of the mutation epidemic you refer to - source please? Further, even if there is some strange mutation outbreak in Michigan you would still have the burden to show that the cause was due to Fukushima Dai-ichi, and not (as would seem more likely) caused by Michigan's manufacturing or chemical industries.

@Moped: Stop acting like a nine year old child.

Given the lack of maturity in Moped's own posts that's actually funny. That line has earned Moped a 9,6 on the irony meter from the East German judge.

Actually Moped, given the reports and studies I'm seen, not to mention reading expert analysis's, I'm going with the idea that it is you that is the paid shill here. Well, I'm assuming you're paid otherwise I'd have to start throwing out adjectives like ignorant, stupid, dumb, trollish, and a whole host of other words that could get me suspended or banned due to CoH. Since I don't wish for that to happen (at least not at this point) I will just have to assume you're paid at this point.

My family, both immediate and extended deal with agriculture; farmers, wholesellers, implement, co-op. Though we don't live in Michigan, we are well aware of what is happening all over the US except for fruit and some of the more rare vegetable crops (why you ask? because their livelihood actually does depend on that knowledge) and what you said is absolutely 100% false.

As for Japan, I currently live in Hawaii. We have a very high Asian population here with many first and second gen families from Japan who still have family and other ties there not to mention the fact that we interact with tens of thousands of Japanese tourists each year. Because of the bond we share with Japan we have had several outreach programs to help out where we can. Hundreds of volunteers have traveled to Japan to help out, even to the Fukishima area. WE have numerously first hand accounts of what is happening there all over Japan including Fukishima and can, without question, say that you are full of crap. Whence's posts are about the most accurate you will find here on newsvine regarding this.

As someone who studied radioactive decay, fission, fusion, and how radiation affects biochem throughout my collegiate days, I can honestly say that you don't have a firm grasp of any of this.

Go spew your dribble someplace else.

Mitchell

Joe-the1: Where exactly did you go, and when did you go? Was it after you made this comment: #3 "Tragic, so sorry about the lost lives and I hope there are no more deaths. However, I do hope that they are evacuating 1.2m or 1.4m people away from this area because the radioactivity is currently so high that it's killing most of these people anyway, especially the children. They don't even have any dosimetry to measure their personal intake dose of radiation, which if known then corrective action could be taken. In the main this would involve evacuation, away from the radioactive contaminated area and the source of the original and current radioactive emissions."?

What readings did you take, and where did you take them? How do they differ from those reported by http://japan.failedrobot.com/ or http://blog.safecast.org/?

People who have actually read the article, of course, will have noticed that "background levels" were not "depicted here."