Originally published on Tuesday, April 2, 2013 by Common Dreams
In wake of disaster, children on the west coast almost one-third more likely to suffer from thyroid abnormalities
– Lauren McCauley, staff writer
Infants on the West Coast of the United States are showing increased incidents of thyroid abnormalities, which researchers are attributing to radiation released following the March 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
An omniscient sign at an anti-nuclear protest in Kouenji, Japan. According to a new study (.pdf) published in the Open Journal of Pediatrics, children born in Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington between one week and 16 weeks after the meltdown began are 28 percent more likely to suffer from congenital hypothyroidism (CH) than were kids born in those states during the same period one year earlier.
CH results from a build up of radioactive iodine in our thyroids and can result in stunted growth, lowered intelligence, deafness, and neurological abnormalities—though can be treated if detected early.
Because their small bodies are more vulnerable and their cells grow faster than adults’, infants serve as the proverbial ‘canary in the coal mine’ for injurious environmental effects.
“With the embryo and fetus, there can never be a ‘safe’ dose of radiation,” writes nukefree.org founder Harvey Wasserman. “NO dose of radiation is too small to have a human impact.”
According to researchers from the Radiation and Public Health Project who performed the study, “Fukushima fallout appeared to affect all areas of the US, and was especially large in some, mostly in the western part of the nation.” They add that CH can provide an early measure to “assess any potential changes in US fetal and infant health status after Fukushima because official data was available relatively promptly.”
Health researcher Joe Mangano similarly cautioned, “Reports of rising numbers of West Coast infants with under-active thyroid glands after Fukushima suggest that Americans may have been harmed by Fukushima fallout. Studies, especially of the youngest, must proceed immediately.”
Earlier this year, the Fukushima Prefecture Health Management Survey found that more than 40 percent of the Japanese children studied showed evidence of thyroid abnormalities, which Wasserman says signifies a “horrifying plague.” He continues:
The ultimate death toll among Fukushima’s victims may be inescapable. But the industry that’s harming them is not. Those thyroid-damaged children bring us yet another tragic warning: There’s just one atomic reactor from which our energy can safely come. Two years after Fukushima, it is still 93 million miles away—but more ready than ever to safely, cleanly and cheaply power our planet.
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(Photo: SandoCap via Flickr)
No comments, I’m amazed, are we so used to mistreatment by our own government we don’t expect any notification of pregnant mothers as to a possible birth defect? We aren’t supposed to expect monitoring of this? I guess when you are devoting your time and treasure killing people in the Middle East, you don’t have time to bother.
Why aren’t people protesting any of this? After 9/11 Bush announced new policy, any “event” like this had to be vetted at the White House before the “people” were told. Is this it, or does the government of this nation really not give a rat’s ass about the health of it’s citizens? This is serious business and not one damned peep from this man sitting in the White House. Not a peep from his fans either, you’ll notice.
We’re in deep trouble with this silence. But when this president put Monsanto and General Electric in positions of power, what did anyone expect? He bought the silence of the voters by pimping their dividends, and shut them up. Hear a peep from the local “progressive” democrats? Not so much as a whimper, let him kill brown people all day long, let him arm Muslim Brotherhood all over the area, as long as he’s sending them their dividend checks they don’t say one damned word. A pox upon them.