Global symposium in NYC addresses mounting medical and ecological consequences, critiques WHO report
- 3-6-2013
Press release update: Information about registration can be found at: http://www.helencaldicottfoundation.org/symposium.html
FUKUSHIMA TWO YEARS LATER
Global symposium in NYC addresses mounting medical
and ecological consequences, critiques WHO report
Press conference highlights radiation exposures of US
military personnel and lawsuit against plant owners
March 11-12 – New York Academy of Medicine
[New York – updated - March 5] Two years after the March 11, 2011 triple meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, important new research and new information is emerging about continuing biomedical and ecological impacts in Japan and worldwide. This information was largely omitted from the methodology of a recent World Health Organization report on Fukushima. But a unique public symposium, “The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident,” March 11-12 at the New York Academy of Medicine will explore it, and draw its implications for the public’s health and safety in Japan, the US and globally.
Press conference: The event includes a press conference 1:00 pm on Monday, March 11 with US Navy Quartermasters (retired) Maurice Enis and Jaime Plym who both suffered radiation exposure and subsequent health damage while serving on the USS Ronald Reagan during a Fukushima aid and rescue mission. Over 150 participants in the mission are reported to have since developed tumors, tremors, internal bleeding, hair loss and other health problems they attribute to radiation exposure. Enis and Plym will discuss the lawsuit they joined against the nuclear plant’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), for misleading US officials about the extent of radiation released.
Symposium: The symposium opens 9:00 am on March 11 with special videotaped messages from Naoto Kan, Japan’s Prime Minister during the Fukushima crisis, and Hiroaki Koide, Master of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Safety and Control Specialist at Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute (KURRI). Then an international group of leading expertsin radiation biology, embryology, epidemiology, oceanography, nuclear engineering, and nuclear policy will present and participate in panels. Among them are Dr. Ken Buesseler, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute; Dr. Hisako Sakiyama of the Japanese Diet’s Fukushima Accident Independent Investigative Commission; Dr. Alexey Yablokov, Russian Academy of Sciences and many others (the full list of presenters is here). Much of the information and analysis they will present is new. All of it is highly relevant to the current debate about the future of nuclear power.
A project of The Helen Caldicott Foundation, the symposium is co-sponsored by Physicians for Social Responsibility. It will reassess the global impacts and implications of Fukushima, including for the United States and its 104 commercial nuclear reactors. It will also critique a recent WHO report claiming fallout from the disaster increased cancer risk only minimally.
“The Fukushima crisis is far from insignificant; it’s a globally important public health issue,” said the symposium’s organizer Dr. Helen Caldicott. “The WHO report ignores critical data and sends the wrong message to the public. Increased incidence of thyroid abnormalities in children in the Fukushima Prefecture may be an early indicator of eventual increased incidence of thyroid cancers. Plumes of radioactivity from Fukushima are migrating in the Pacific towards the US West Coast.”
The latest Fukushima Prefecture Health Management Survey shows that of over 111,000 children examined, 44% had thyroid ultrasound abnormalities, a few of whom have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Last week’s WHO report confirms that there are selected groups of people who will suffer from increased risk of cancer due to the accident, and that women and children are particularly affected. But its chosen methodology ignores other major studies of Fukushima radiation releases, and these would have been likely to have increased its estimation of health effects. The WHO report also dismisses the effects on all evacuees and plant workers, who were the most exposed. Its radiation dose calculations for a population of 120 million relied on select and inadequate data. For example, only 39 eggs and 41 fish samples were tested in the entire Fukushima Prefecture. Exposures from tap water contaminated by radiation were ignored, despite the spread of contamination from Fukushima to surrounding prefectures and northern Tokyo.
Experts will address these and related issues at the symposium. “The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident” takes place March 11 – 12 at the New York Academy of Medicine, at Fifth Ave and 103rd St (enter on 103rd St), beginning 9am March 11. The full symposium program is posted at www.helencaldicottfoundation.org.
NOTE TO JOURNALISTS AND BLOGGERS: Members of the media are invited to attend all or part of the symposium free of charge.
The opening session with messages from Naoto Kan and Hiroaki Koide starts at 9am March 11. The press conference with US Navy Quartermasters Maurice Enis and Jaime Plym starts at 1:00 pm March 11. Please see the symposium agenda (http://www.helencaldicottfoundation.org/symposium.html, bottom of the page) for dates and times of other presentations and panels.
Dr. Caldicott and other symposium presenters are available for advance or side interviews on request.
To RSVP for the symposium or to arrange an interview, please contact Josh Baran, jcbaran@gmail.com, 917-797-1799 or Stephen Kent, skent@kentcom.com, 914-589-5988 (members of the working media only please).
About The Helen Caldicott Foundation - The goal of The Helen Caldicott Foundation is far-reaching public education about the often underestimated and poorly understood medical hazards of nuclear weapons and nuclear power.
http://www.nuclearfreeplanet.org/news/2013/03/06/fukushima-two-years-later--global-symposium-in-nyc-addresses-mounting-medical--and-ecological-consequences-critiques-who-report.html
FUKUSHIMA TWO YEARS LATER
Global symposium in NYC addresses mounting medical
and ecological consequences, critiques WHO report
Press conference highlights radiation exposures of US
military personnel and lawsuit against plant owners
March 11-12 – New York Academy of Medicine
[New York – updated - March 5] Two years after the March 11, 2011 triple meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, important new research and new information is emerging about continuing biomedical and ecological impacts in Japan and worldwide. This information was largely omitted from the methodology of a recent World Health Organization report on Fukushima. But a unique public symposium, “The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident,” March 11-12 at the New York Academy of Medicine will explore it, and draw its implications for the public’s health and safety in Japan, the US and globally.
Press conference: The event includes a press conference 1:00 pm on Monday, March 11 with US Navy Quartermasters (retired) Maurice Enis and Jaime Plym who both suffered radiation exposure and subsequent health damage while serving on the USS Ronald Reagan during a Fukushima aid and rescue mission. Over 150 participants in the mission are reported to have since developed tumors, tremors, internal bleeding, hair loss and other health problems they attribute to radiation exposure. Enis and Plym will discuss the lawsuit they joined against the nuclear plant’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), for misleading US officials about the extent of radiation released.
Symposium: The symposium opens 9:00 am on March 11 with special videotaped messages from Naoto Kan, Japan’s Prime Minister during the Fukushima crisis, and Hiroaki Koide, Master of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Safety and Control Specialist at Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute (KURRI). Then an international group of leading expertsin radiation biology, embryology, epidemiology, oceanography, nuclear engineering, and nuclear policy will present and participate in panels. Among them are Dr. Ken Buesseler, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute; Dr. Hisako Sakiyama of the Japanese Diet’s Fukushima Accident Independent Investigative Commission; Dr. Alexey Yablokov, Russian Academy of Sciences and many others (the full list of presenters is here). Much of the information and analysis they will present is new. All of it is highly relevant to the current debate about the future of nuclear power.
A project of The Helen Caldicott Foundation, the symposium is co-sponsored by Physicians for Social Responsibility. It will reassess the global impacts and implications of Fukushima, including for the United States and its 104 commercial nuclear reactors. It will also critique a recent WHO report claiming fallout from the disaster increased cancer risk only minimally.
“The Fukushima crisis is far from insignificant; it’s a globally important public health issue,” said the symposium’s organizer Dr. Helen Caldicott. “The WHO report ignores critical data and sends the wrong message to the public. Increased incidence of thyroid abnormalities in children in the Fukushima Prefecture may be an early indicator of eventual increased incidence of thyroid cancers. Plumes of radioactivity from Fukushima are migrating in the Pacific towards the US West Coast.”
The latest Fukushima Prefecture Health Management Survey shows that of over 111,000 children examined, 44% had thyroid ultrasound abnormalities, a few of whom have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Last week’s WHO report confirms that there are selected groups of people who will suffer from increased risk of cancer due to the accident, and that women and children are particularly affected. But its chosen methodology ignores other major studies of Fukushima radiation releases, and these would have been likely to have increased its estimation of health effects. The WHO report also dismisses the effects on all evacuees and plant workers, who were the most exposed. Its radiation dose calculations for a population of 120 million relied on select and inadequate data. For example, only 39 eggs and 41 fish samples were tested in the entire Fukushima Prefecture. Exposures from tap water contaminated by radiation were ignored, despite the spread of contamination from Fukushima to surrounding prefectures and northern Tokyo.
Experts will address these and related issues at the symposium. “The Medical and Ecological Consequences of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident” takes place March 11 – 12 at the New York Academy of Medicine, at Fifth Ave and 103rd St (enter on 103rd St), beginning 9am March 11. The full symposium program is posted at www.helencaldicottfoundation.org.
NOTE TO JOURNALISTS AND BLOGGERS: Members of the media are invited to attend all or part of the symposium free of charge.
The opening session with messages from Naoto Kan and Hiroaki Koide starts at 9am March 11. The press conference with US Navy Quartermasters Maurice Enis and Jaime Plym starts at 1:00 pm March 11. Please see the symposium agenda (http://www.helencaldicottfoundation.org/symposium.html, bottom of the page) for dates and times of other presentations and panels.
Dr. Caldicott and other symposium presenters are available for advance or side interviews on request.
To RSVP for the symposium or to arrange an interview, please contact Josh Baran, jcbaran@gmail.com, 917-797-1799 or Stephen Kent, skent@kentcom.com, 914-589-5988 (members of the working media only please).
About The Helen Caldicott Foundation - The goal of The Helen Caldicott Foundation is far-reaching public education about the often underestimated and poorly understood medical hazards of nuclear weapons and nuclear power.
http://www.nuclearfreeplanet.org/news/2013/03/06/fukushima-two-years-later--global-symposium-in-nyc-addresses-mounting-medical--and-ecological-consequences-critiques-who-report.html
