Praying in a Tokyo church could expose you to radiation levels higher than Chernobyl dead zones.
In the same manner that Japanese authorities failed to prevent the Japanese nuclear disaster earlier this year, the authorities are dealing with radiation fallout –– in Tokyo. They are not telling the whole story. Locals armed with their own dosimeters are clocking levels higher than at the exclusion zone of Chernobyl. What one resident found at his 11-year-old kid’s baseball field is radiation levels that can make you sick. Another test found the highest radiation dose, in an undisclosed area of a church. Some 20 hotspots have since been identified.
Church officials, reports the New York Times, do not want to announce the name of the church or the location of the radiation hotspot to avoid widespread panic.
In the locally-created Radiation Defense survey, the group says that the church is in the Sugamo district and it measured 2 million becquerels of cesium 137 in a square meter, well above the 1.5 in Chernobyl that forced residents to locate.
One physicist Edwin Lyman from Washington said the difference in Japan is that in Tokyo the radiation is occurring in hotspots. It is not widely dispersed. Given that, it is still advised to do a clean up because over time communities of people may be exposed to well over the recommended yearly dose of radiation.
Meanwhile watch out for nuclear wasabi from Japan. It could be contaminated as local farmers around the radiation hotspots near Tokyo had no idea that their land was contaminated.
Just after the disaster Tafline interviewed nuclear activist and scientist Dr. Helen Caldicott on the Japanese nuclear crisis, which affects not only the Japanese but the health of our planet.
Despite the writing on the wall, countries with unstable political futures like Saudi Arabia and Jordan are dead set on going nuclear. We feel ashamed that humanity doesn’t stop this destructive form of energy immediately.
Update: Monday, Oct. 17 – the image above is not the church mentioned in the story, as a reader points out. It is for illustration purposes only.
Image of Japanese church via mujitra
“If you have a connection to the Pope, please drop him a line.”
We are going out for a couple of beers next Friday. I’ll mention it to him.
Thank you for adding that note about the church.
And sorry for my nitpicking. I thought the article was excellent, by the way. It was news in the true sense of the word — important information that we’ve never seen elsewhere. Please keep up the good work.
“Clearly now is the time for the Pope to step in and stop nuclear energy plants for this planet’s sake. Agreed?”
Agreed.
Thanks again.
If you have a connection to the Pope, please drop him a line. 🙂
@Adding it up: I think the Japanese Government let a lot of accountability issues fall to the waste side. I think what the NY Times reports is in line with what we’ve been hearing from Japan.
@Factcheck: the image was used for illustration purposes as it’s mentioned that the location of the church has not been disclosed. I updated the story at the bottom so that worshipers at this Sapporo church will not be afraid. Clearly now is the time for the Pope to step in and stop nuclear energy plants for this planet’s sake. Agreed?
Do you live in Japan?
The church pictured is 500 miles from Tokyo and 380 miles from Fukushima.
And Adding-it-up has a good point too. Seems irresponsible.
The Catholic Church in Japan seems to be firmly on the anti-nuke side (not sure if this is the policy of the Vatican or the preference of politically active local parishioners). I don’t think they would hide it.
So this locally-created group discovered what they claim is a significant public health threat in a major city and announce that it exists, but will not release the details to the public because church officials don’t want them to? That doesn’t really add up.
The church you show is located in Sapporo, hundreds of miles away from Tokyo and far removed from Fukushima as well. You should mention that it has absolutely nothing to do with the article.