Friday, June 14, 2013

#Fukushima Medical University Distributed Potassium Iodide to Medical Staff on March 15, 2011, Says It Was Their "Vested Interest" As Medical Professionals


as radioactive materials were falling on people waiting outside to get drinking water and food.

A short blog post by Minamisoma City Assemblyman Koichi Ooyama contains a link to a religious newspaper article that recounts the early days of the nuclear accident in March 2011 and how people are trying to recover from the disaster by decontaminating their place.

In the June 6, 2013 article, the author Koyu Abe, a Zen Buddhist monk in Fukushima City, says the following:

当時の放射性ヨウ素の貴重なデータがある。福島市の南東に位置する県立医大近辺で3月15日(爆発から3日後)に採取された葉菜の検査記録だ。県が測定し手書きで残したその資料には、ヨウ素だけで1キロあたり119万ベクレルが検出されたことが示されている。

There exists a valuable piece of data about radioactive iodine in the early days of the accident. It is the record of measuring leafy vegetables taken near Fukushima Medical University [located just south of Fukushima City center] on March 15 (three days after the explosion [of Reactor 1]). The handwritten data by the prefectural government shows 1.19 million becquerels/kg of radioactive iodine.

当時医大で医師・看護師などに「安定ヨウ素剤」を配ったのも頷けるデータだ。しかし、私たちにはそうしたデータが公表されることはなかった。

Looking at this number, it is understandable that Fukushima Medical University distributed potassium iodide pills to doctors and nurses. However, this data was never disclosed to us.

今年の1月、法務省主催の人権フォーラム「震災と人権」でパネリストを務め、こうした事実を伝えた。ところが、後日主催者から報告文書中のこの発言内容について削除したい旨の電話が入った。

In January this year, I served as a panelist in a human rights forum sponsored by the Ministry of Justice called "March 11, 2011 disaster and human rights", and I talked about this fact. However, the sponsor called me later and said they would like to delete my comments from the report.

医大関係者から「それは医療従事者の既得権益で、なんら問題がない」という意見が寄せられたためだ。私は「百歩譲ってそれを認めたとしても、地震により当時ライフラインの復旧のために何週間もの間、文字通り寝食を忘れ、大量の放射性物質が降り注ぐ中、復旧工事に従事していた人にはなぜ配られなかったのか。彼らには既得権益はないのか」と一蹴すると、1時間足らずで「削除せず、そのまま記録する」との返答があった。明らかな職業差別であったからだ。

Officials at Fukushima Medical University had raised issues with the sponsor by saying "It [distributing potassium iodide pills] was our vested interest as medical professionals, and there should be no problem with that."

I protested and said, "For argument's sake let's assume it is true. But there were people at that time working hard day and night for weeks on end, literally without sleep and food, in order to restore life lines after the earthquake while a large amount of radioactive materials were falling on them. Why didn't they get the pills? Why didn't they have vested interest?" One hour later, they called me back and said my comments wouldn't be deleted, and would be recorded as they were. It was clear that [the University's argument] was discrimination based on occupation.


Mr. Abe is the one who decided to use his temple to store contaminated soil removed from people's homes, three months after the start of the accident.

On March 15, 2011, I remember reading about people in Fukushima, particularly in Fukushima City, standing outside in long lines in the snow for a long time to get some drinking water, with mothers and fathers taking their kids with them.

Reactor 3 building blew up at 11AM on the previous day, March 14. They were trying to vent Reactor 2 all night and early morning of March 15. Reactor 4 building managed to blow up (no one knows how) in the early morning of March 15, and at about the same time some event did happen in Reactor 2's Suppression Chamber.

On March 15, 2011, I was writing about:

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Maybe a Level 7 Disaster

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Reactor No.4 Radiation Abnormally High, Government Asking US Military to Spray Water From Air

On March 16, 2011, I was screaming about the first evacuee death due to lack of water, heat, and food, while the official depots were swimming with foods, water and blankets and clothes from people from all over the world.

Hardly anyone was reading my blog then, but I had to write to keep some sanity. It still feels like only yesterday.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing this.
I didn't read your blog then, although I found it very soon.
My wife and a number of our friends and business partners are Japanese; after the traumatic images of the tsunami it became known one plant was on fire. Then the explosions, one after another. As Europeans, we've learned that the impossible can happen, be very bad even 1000 km away from Tchernobyl, and blaming poor Soviet technology doesn't help.
Right since the explosions, no-one around me here to think it wasn't a Tchernobyl-level event, a thing that amazed some Japanese people in Japan, when I told them this later.
And even worse : a Tchernobyl + a Minamata event.
This I had no opportunity to tell them about.
We go to Japan quite often, but always at the same times of the year, and I had never seen the cherry blossoms, nor had my wife for dozens of years. We had planned a trip to Japan, as an exception, two weeks in March-April.
We had a narow-escape from divorce, and went to Japan. Sakurami with hanabi. It was so stressing that I started a blog about what was happening there. Part to give news to some people around ( some of whom guessed I was writing it ) and part, as you have, to protect my mind.

Phiphi

Anonymous said...

Right after the accident news were somewhat reassuring (experts saying that radiation decreases with inverse square of distance so not a big problem). However the same news stations evacuated their reporters from the Fukushima area and this was not in the news.
These doctors took iodine pills but it was not in the news.
The families of military personnel in Yokosuka were evacuated but it was not in the news.
In a worst case scenario the evacuation of Tokyo might have been necessary but it was not in the news.
Now it is in the news but still people vote LDP so that a group of 90 of its politicians can say that they want to assess whether NRA "demands" have a scientific basis. What can I say? for heaven's sake do not restart those nuclear clunkers... it is now proven that they can't withstand earthquakes and we have already been lucky enough with Fukushima.
Beppe

Anonymous said...

Beppe, those pieces of news you mentioned WERE in the news, but not this one about Fukushima Medical University.

I've heard worse rumors (i.e. unsubstantiated) last year, that central government ministries in Kasumigaseki in Tokyo ordered the ventilation stopped and windows closed in their buildings right before the radioactive plume hit Tokyo on March 15. Government workers were told not to go outside.

Anonymous said...

Incompetence. It's the human way.

I can only imagine how much worse such an incident would be in countries where people trust each other less and hate each other more. What a colossal mess that would be.

Anonymous said...

@1:01 right, but they were in the news long AFTER the fact; at that point in time their value is close to nil.

Rumors about the folks in Kasumigaseki doing the minimum to protect themselves are quite plausible: on Sat. March 12th 2011 the Swiss consulate advised families with children to leave Tokyo. The moment a npp loses its ability to cool the reactor you do not want to just wait and see and this is pretty obvious to anyone owning a minimum of background information on nuclear "technology".

@2:25 my impression is that greed (cost cutting) played a larger role than incompetence at Fukushima. Same goes for San Onofre: their greed for more steam (= more dollars) led to the plant decommissioning; apparently incompetence was there too (incorrect design simulations) but seekng more power output and hiding design changes are driven by greed.

Anonymous said...

1) Fukushima is 1 million USSRs Tjernobyl.
2) Prov in the Kina, Kanada, USA, Australia and Ryssland (different between "Before" and "efter" Fukushima in the watter bk/m3 off Pacific Oceanen on the beach X m3 watter in the Pacific oceanen).

I hope you understund it . Everything .... Everybody... Thernobyl was 300 Sivert /h (24x300=7200 Sivert / every day).
Fukushima?? x 3 or x6 ? or x 600? I don´t know.
Google and read about 300 Sivert/h Tjernobyl disaster by English. Japan kan not stop it. It is Armageddon x Apokalypsis x Ragnarök (Sweden´s Armageddon) x Konec Sveta (Rysk Armageddon) .

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