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Japan: Fukushima Woman
Organizes Radiation Information Centers At Church
Fukushima Nuclear Crisis
EMF Computer Protection
Magnetic Field Detector
April 18, 2012
By Hisashi Yukimoto
Terumi Kataoka, who lives just 100 kilometers (62 miles)
from the crippled
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, is one of
thousands of Japanese who frankly don’t believe what
governments and scientists are telling them about the health
effects of low-dose radiation.
So Kataoka, 50, has set up the Aizu Radiation Information
Center at her local United Church of Christ church in
Aizuwakamatsu. Because she is especially concerned about the
effect of radiation on children, she also heads the Aizu
Society to Protect the Lives of Children from Radiation.
“There is no time to lose. We are called to pray and act
with our voices of anger to save the lives of the little
ones,” Kataoka told ENInews.
The plant, damaged in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami,
has been leaking radiation. A no-entry zone extends 20 km
(12 miles) from the facility. Some areas near the zone this
month were re-designated by the government as “zones being
prepared for residents’ return.” Other areas are called
“zones with restricted residency.”
According to the Fukushima Prefectural government’s latest
statistics, 62,831 people have been evacuated from the
state.
Although Kataoka’s town is outside the evacuation zone, she
and many of her neighbours believe they are still in danger
from low doses of radiation in the soil, air, food, and
water.
Scientist Shunichi Yamashita, a radiologist who serves as
Fukushima Prefecture’s radiation health risk management
advisor, was widely criticized for saying that the risk from
radiation doses below 100mSV (millisieverts) is “unknown”
but “not to be worried.”
Kataoka’s Aizu Society, established last May, links mothers
who are worried about their children’s exposure to radiation
and lessens their “sense of isolation” through sharing
information on its Japanese blog and email list and taking
action. Membership is free of charge.
The information center offers children’s medical counselling,
radiation monitoring of food, radiation counters on loan, a
website with a map of readings of radiation levels measured
by citizens at certain spots in Aizuwakamatsu, study and
lecture meetings, children’s recreation programs, and the
sale of safe vegetables.
The center is also publishing electronic and printed news
and other information, organizing demonstrations and
rallies, negotiating with government administrations,
responding to media inquiries, and providing support to
groups opposed to nuclear power. The center has an annual
paid membership of about 60 individuals and some groups.
Tomoyuki
Yamazaki, a Japanese doctor and a United Church member in
Wakayama Prefecture in western Japan who provides medical
counselling at the information center every month, said in
an email to ENInews that an increasing number of children he
has seen “have nosebleeds that don’t stop, diarrhea, dark
circles under their eyes, and incurable stomatitis [an
inflammation of the mucous linings in the mouth]. A growing
number of children [at the centre] have pains in their
chests.”
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