No Need to Worry ...?
Hi, this is Vika who is the first to say that IT'S NOT SO BAD and Kansai is totally fine, radioactivity-wise.
This is also Vika who is banging her head repeatedly against available surfaces, moaning and groaning What The Heck whenever she listens to Ina Yasuhiro.
Who is Ina Yasuhiro?
Ina Yasuhiro 稲恭宏 is a doctor of medicine at Tôkyô University (the best university in Japan), specializing in causes of disease, pathology, and immunology. If I understand correctly, he (was one of the researchers who?) found out how to use radiation in cancer treatment (?) (radiation therapy, isn't it?) and therefore thinks he knows everything there is to know about the effect of radiation on the human body.
Even though he insists on being an internationally highly-esteemed doctor, a quick Google search revealed... almost nothing. He doesn't even have an English wiki page (lol yeah, I know, don't take this too seriously, I'm just trying to prove something) and his Japanese wiki article appeared on March 31st. This year. So yeah.
Now why am I talking about this guy?
Well, there are those videos, the latter of which has six parts, where he insists that the Fukushima incident has no negative effect on the human body. According to him, there will be no leukaemia, no thyroid cancer, no nothing. We should all continue to eat vegetables, drink tab water, go outside without fear that we might seal our fate. He says that the information we get from news stations and the government are false.
Now where have I heard that before? Oh, right! From my doctor. But she said that the Japanese government/TEPCO/the news stations are downplaying the danger. Ina Yasuhiro claims these same institutions are exaggerating and irresponsibly creating insecurity and panic among the population. He claims that it is not necessary to throw away contaminated milk, spinach and whatever else got a 'DO NOT EAT' several days ago. He also says that tab water could have thousands of Becquerel (instead of 100 for babies and 200 for everyone else) and STILL be safe for consumption.
He argues that right now, we're basing everything on our knowledge from Chernobyl and the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and that there is no way those historical events and the Fukushima incident are on the same scale.
Please keep in mind that several esteemed researchers have already stated that Fukushima could very possibly be on the same scale as Chernobyl. (Sorry, no source; there was this interview in a German newspaper and I can't remember where exactly.)
See, there's also this video of Hirose Takeshi, a 'non-fiction writer' and anti-nuclear kind-of activist (?), who is insisting that the Fukushima incident is certainly as bad as Chernobyl. What he says is that people SHOULD panic and demand the government lay everything out in the open; he says that Japan is hiding information from the people, namely the information that it is incredibly dangerous and people should stay the hell away from that area. He also says that all of Japan will be influenced by the radiation and even negatively affect faraway areas like Ôsaka.
Both are insisting that the people who are in charge right now don't know anything at all and understand even less, but they are on different ends of the scale.
I'd love to believe Ina; but to be honest, he is the only one who says everything's fine. I'm much more inclined to believe Hirose in this one, even though I believe it's not as bad.
Also: Ina insists that the important thing is the dose rate; meaning that the higher the dose, the higher the danger; according to Ina, it is unimportant how long you are exposed to radiation, which is bullshit. Absolute bullshit. Give me a credible source that states the opposite (that is, sources other than Ina) and I will retract that statement, but from what I've heard up until now, the important thing is HOW LONG YOU STAY IN THAT AREA because IT ADDS UP.
Sorry for this wall of text.
This is also Vika who is banging her head repeatedly against available surfaces, moaning and groaning What The Heck whenever she listens to Ina Yasuhiro.
Who is Ina Yasuhiro?
Ina Yasuhiro 稲恭宏 is a doctor of medicine at Tôkyô University (the best university in Japan), specializing in causes of disease, pathology, and immunology. If I understand correctly, he (was one of the researchers who?) found out how to use radiation in cancer treatment (?) (radiation therapy, isn't it?) and therefore thinks he knows everything there is to know about the effect of radiation on the human body.
Even though he insists on being an internationally highly-esteemed doctor, a quick Google search revealed... almost nothing. He doesn't even have an English wiki page (lol yeah, I know, don't take this too seriously, I'm just trying to prove something) and his Japanese wiki article appeared on March 31st. This year. So yeah.
Now why am I talking about this guy?
Well, there are those videos, the latter of which has six parts, where he insists that the Fukushima incident has no negative effect on the human body. According to him, there will be no leukaemia, no thyroid cancer, no nothing. We should all continue to eat vegetables, drink tab water, go outside without fear that we might seal our fate. He says that the information we get from news stations and the government are false.
Now where have I heard that before? Oh, right! From my doctor. But she said that the Japanese government/TEPCO/the news stations are downplaying the danger. Ina Yasuhiro claims these same institutions are exaggerating and irresponsibly creating insecurity and panic among the population. He claims that it is not necessary to throw away contaminated milk, spinach and whatever else got a 'DO NOT EAT' several days ago. He also says that tab water could have thousands of Becquerel (instead of 100 for babies and 200 for everyone else) and STILL be safe for consumption.
He argues that right now, we're basing everything on our knowledge from Chernobyl and the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and that there is no way those historical events and the Fukushima incident are on the same scale.
Please keep in mind that several esteemed researchers have already stated that Fukushima could very possibly be on the same scale as Chernobyl. (Sorry, no source; there was this interview in a German newspaper and I can't remember where exactly.)
See, there's also this video of Hirose Takeshi, a 'non-fiction writer' and anti-nuclear kind-of activist (?), who is insisting that the Fukushima incident is certainly as bad as Chernobyl. What he says is that people SHOULD panic and demand the government lay everything out in the open; he says that Japan is hiding information from the people, namely the information that it is incredibly dangerous and people should stay the hell away from that area. He also says that all of Japan will be influenced by the radiation and even negatively affect faraway areas like Ôsaka.
Both are insisting that the people who are in charge right now don't know anything at all and understand even less, but they are on different ends of the scale.
I'd love to believe Ina; but to be honest, he is the only one who says everything's fine. I'm much more inclined to believe Hirose in this one, even though I believe it's not as bad.
Also: Ina insists that the important thing is the dose rate; meaning that the higher the dose, the higher the danger; according to Ina, it is unimportant how long you are exposed to radiation, which is bullshit. Absolute bullshit. Give me a credible source that states the opposite (that is, sources other than Ina) and I will retract that statement, but from what I've heard up until now, the important thing is HOW LONG YOU STAY IN THAT AREA because IT ADDS UP.
Sorry for this wall of text.