Excessive Radiation Fears
Caused Deaths of Elderly Hospital Patients in Fukushima?
Fukushima Power Plant
EMF Protection Devices
Magnetic Field Detector
12.17.2011
The Yomiuri has
reported a very sad episode that occurred back in March. It
seems that authorities overreacted to the potential danger
of radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant
and ordered a rushed evacuation of elderly people housed at
hospitals and nursing homes in the area. The physical
condition of many of the patients was not properly
considered, and the method of evacuation appears to have
caused some deaths:
The prefectural government
asked the Self-Defense Forces to transfer the patients to
the Soso Public Health and Welfare Office, about 25
kilometers north of the power plant, because it was
designated as a radiation screening site.
“We believed they had to
undergo radiation screenings first to be accepted at
evacuation centers,” a prefectural government public health
official said.
However, Prof. Yoshio
Hosoi of Hiroshima University–an emergency radiation
medicine expert who was dispatched to the prefecture in
response to the accident–could not help wondering if it was
necessary for these patients to undergo the screenings. The
professor believed they had probably not been exposed to
excessive radiation because they remained indoors after the
accident.
In fact, screenings for
the 840 patients found none of them had been exposed to a
level of radiation high enough for them to require
decontamination treatment.
Among them were 132
patients and residents from Futaba Hospital and the
Deauville Futaba home for the elderly, both of which were in
Okumamachi. After arriving at the welfare office and
undergoing radiation screening, they were then moved to
Iwaki, in the southern part of the prefecture, via Fukushima
city and Koriyama.
They traveled about 200
kilometers during the 12-hour journey before arriving at
Iwaki-Koyo High School. Three patients died in transit,
while an another 11 passed away hours after arriving at the
school.
“The public had
excessive radiation exposure fears,” Hosoi said as to
why authorities put more focus on radiation screenings
rather than the swift transfer of the patients.
At least 77 elderly
people have died since undergoing evacuation after the March
11th disaster. Many of the deaths can be linked the stress
of relocation.
http://www.emfnews.org/store
|