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ALARMIST predictions that the long-term health effects of the Fukushima nuclear accident will be worse than those following Chernobyl in 1986 are likely to aggravate harmful psychological effects of the incident. That was the warning heard at a conference on radiation research in Warsaw, Poland, this week.
"The Japanese did the right thing, providing stable iodine to ensure that radioactive doses to children were minimal,"
Thomas says. Japanese researchers attending the meeting are upset, she adds. "They're saying: 'Please tell the truth, because no one believes us'.
Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency report that the release of radioactivity from Fukushima is about 10 per cent that of Chernobyl.
"The media has a hell of a lot of responsibility here, because the worst post-Chernobyl effects were the psychological consequences and this shouldn't happen again."
"The effects of radiation do not come to people who are happy and laughing, they come to people who are weak-spirited."
emphasis mine
SPIEGEL: People want clear answers. Where is it safe? And where is it not?
Yama#a: We don't have those answers. When people ask me: "Are doses below 100 millisievert 100 percent safe?" Then I have to answer as a scientist: "I don't know."
SPIEGEL: What kind of health risk from the radiation will the people around the plant in Fukushima have to face?
Yama#a: I do not think there will be any direct effect of the radiation for the population. The doses are too small.
SPIEGEL: Are you also researching the mental effects of the disaster?
Yama#a: Of course. We know from Chernobyl that the psychological consequences are enormous. Life expectancy of the evacuees dropped from 65 to 58 years -- not because of cancer, but because of depression, alcoholism and suicide. Relocation is not easy, the stress is very big. We must not only track those problems, but also treat them. Otherwise people will feel they are just guinea pigs in our research.
Originally posted by Aim64C
I'll just simply state that it amuses me how popular the comments containing no real information are on this forum.
"Yeah, right, more lies!" tends to be the typical response to any hard facts being posted.
In the mean time, life on this planet should not exist, if you believe alarmist claims. The coal power plants in China have saturated Japan with several hundred times as much radioactive material as the Fukushima plant did.
Unfortunately; stupidity is not, in and of itself, lethal in concentration.
This information in the op comes from the congress on radiation research...
Their livelihoods depend on getting huge grants to tout how great it is to glow!
It's akin to the tobacco industry saying, "it is mainly hype what our products can do to you..."