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Link to Green Power and Wellness Show

Dr. Sherman and Joseph Mangano interviewed by Harvey Wasserman January 17, 2012.

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Tuesday Jan 17—Dr Sherman talks with Harvey Wasserman on web radio show

On Tuesday January 17th from 2–3 pm EST,  Dr. Janette Sherman and Joseph Mangano will discuss their new report questioning increased mortality rates as a result of Fukushima fallout, the Chernobyl report, and the history of the debate about radiation and health with Harvey Wasserman, host of the Green Power & Wellness Show on www.progressiveradionetwork.com.

Harvey Wasserman brings to the air his half-century of joyous activism on issues ranging from peace, civil rights and human liberties to No Nukes, election protection, people’s history, ending the drug war and much more. Harvey has served as senior advisor to Greenpeace USA and he helped organize the 1979 No Nukes concerts in Madison Square Garden, and spoke at the MUSE2 concert in Silicon Valley in 2011. He edits the www.nukefree.org website.

Learn more about Mr. Wasserman at www.progressiveradionetwork.com/harvey-wasserman/

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Lynn Ehrle promotes “Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment”

Lynn Ehrle, of the International Science Oversight Board of the Organic Consumers Association, was the kickoff speaker at the International Roundtable on “Nuclear Threats to the Great Lakes and Transition to Clean Safe Energy” on May 14, 2011, in Dearborn, Michigan. He focused on the human health risks of exposure to so-called “low dose” ionizing radiation, such as what blanketed the entire Northern Hemisphere (including North America) in the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. The book distills thousands of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarussian scientific studies on the health and ecological impacts of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. One of the book’s findings: as many as 985,000 people may have died from their exposure to Chernobyl’s radioactive fallout, just between the years 1986 to 2004. View his presentation here.

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PRESS RELEASE: New Report in the International Journal of Health Services

PRESS RELEASE—Janette D. Sherman, MD
12-20-2011

This report, An Unexpected Mortality Increase in the United States Follows Arrival of the Radioactive Plume from Fukushima: Is There a Correlation? published in the International Journal of Health Services today, is not new science, but confirms research done over the decades as to adverse effects caused by radioisotopes to the unborn and the very young because of their rapidly developing cells, immature immunological systems and relatively small weight.

As background, in the 1950s, I worked for the Atomic Energy Commission (the forerunner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) at the Radiation Laboratory, University of California in Berkeley and the US Navy Radiation Laboratory at Hunter’s Point in San Francisco. Near 60 years ago, we learned that radiation could damage animals and plants and cause cancer, genetic damage, and other problems.

The issue of the danger from nuclear power plants is not just the engineering, but biology and chemistry. We have understood for decades where and how radioisotopes interact with life systems.

Cesium-137 and Strontium-90 have half-lives of approx 30 years. It takes 10 half-lives for an isotope to fully decay, thus it will take 300 years or three centuries before radioactive cesium and strontium will be gone.

Cs-134, Cs-137 and Sr-90 continue to be released from Fukushima in tons of contaminated water that is making its’ way across the Pacific Ocean. Cesium concentrates in soft tissue, strontium in bones and teeth, of the unborn and young.

Immediately after Chernobyl the level of thyroid disease increased. Given the large amounts of radioactive iodine (I-131) released from Fukushima, thyroid disease will develop in those exposed in Japan, as well as in those exposed to lesser amounts throughout the northern hemisphere. Public health officials need to anticipate and prepare for these findings.

The highest levels of I-131 measured by EPA in precipitation varied from a high of 390 pico Curies (pCi) in Boise to 92 in Boston, with intermediate levels in Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Jacksonville and Olympia, WA.  (Normal is about 2 pCi)

Not every system was evaluated after Chernobyl, but of those that were: wild and domestic animals, birds, fish, plants, fungi, bacteria, viruses—even humans—were altered by the radiation, often for generations.

Birds in the 30-kilometer “exclusion zone” of Chernobyl display small brain size, alterations of normal coloration, poor survival of offspring, and poor adaptability to stress,

Recent, independent studies conducted in Scandinavia shows a decline on academic performance in children exposed during the Chernobyl fallout.

80% of children in Belarus are considered un-well by government standards.

Unless the earth stops turning, and the laws of biology, chemistry and physics are rescinded, we will continue to see sickness and harm spread to the children of Fukushima, the same that occurred after Chernobyl. We ignore history at our peril.

Full article available on 12-20-2011 at:
www.janettesherman.com
www.radiation.org

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Question marks, the elephant in the room…

…and the refusal of nuclear power defenders to consider what has happened to people and the environment since Fukushima and Chernobyl

San Francisco BayView, June 25, 2011 — By Janette Sherman and Joseph Mangano

By concentrating only on the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) data – incomplete at best – and ignoring the on-going radioactive releases from Fukushima, it is apparent that the pro-nuclear forces are alive and active.

In the recent article published on June 9, 2011, in the San Francisco Bay View, there were two question marks in the title: “Is the Dramatic Increase in Baby Deaths in the U. S. a Result of the Fukushima Fallout? How Can we Find Out?” In the Counter Punch article published in the weekend edition on June 10-12, 2011, again there was a question mark at the end of the title, “Is the Dramatic Increase in Baby Deaths in the US a Result of the Fukushima Fallout?” The question marks were intended to stimulate interest and prompt demand for governments – Japan and the U. S. at least – to provide definitive and timely data about the levels of radioactivity in food, air and water.

We received many responses, some in support of our concerns and some critical about how we used CDC data, including outright ad hominid attacks accusing us of scaremongering and deliberate fraud.

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Fukushima and the Nuclear Establishment: The Big Lies Fly High

Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, has focused on investigative reporting on energy and environmental issues for more than 40 years. He is the host of the nationally-aired TV program Enviro Close-Up (www.envirovideo.com) and the author of numerous books.

He writes for CounterPunch.org:

The global nuclear industry and its allies in government are making a desperate effort to cover up the consequences of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. “The big lie flies high,” comments Kevin Kamps of the organization Beyond Nuclear.

Not only is this nuclear establishment seeking to make it look like the Fukushima catastrophe has not happened—going so far as to claim that there will be “no health effects” as a result of it—but it is moving forward on a “nuclear renaissance,” its scheme to build more nuclear plants.

Indeed, next week in Washington, a two-day “Special Summit on New Nuclear Energy” will be held involving major manufacturers of nuclear power plants—including General Electric, the manufacturer of the Fukushima plants—and U.S. government officials.

Although since Fukushima, Germany, Switzerland and Italy and other nations have turned away from nuclear power for a commitment instead to safe, clean, renewable energy such as solar and wind, the Obama administration is continuing its insistence on nuclear power.

Will the nuclear establishment be able to get away with telling what, indeed, would be one of the most outrageous Big Lies of all time—that no one will die as a result of Fukushima?

Will it be able to continue its new nuclear push despite the catastrophe?

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Is the increase in baby deaths in the northwest U.S. due to Fukushima fallout? How can we find out?

San Francisco BayView, June 9, 2011
Janette D. Sherman, MD, Joseph Mangano, MPH, MBA

U.S. babies are dying at an increased rate. While the United States spends billions on medical care, as of 2006, the U.S. ranked 28th in the world in infant mortality, more than twice that of the lowest ranked countries. (See Table 20, page 131, “Health, United States, 2010,” issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and the National Center for Health Statistics in February 2011.)

The recent CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report indicates that eight cities in the northwest U.S. – Boise, Idaho; Seattle, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; plus the northern California cities of Santa Cruz, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose and Berkeley – reported the following data on deaths among those younger than one year of age:

4 weeks ending March 19, 2011: 37 deaths (average 9.25 per week)
10 weeks ending May 28, 2011: 125 deaths (average 12.50 per week)

This amounts to an increase of 35 percent – the total for the entire U.S. rose about 2.3 percent – and is statistically significant. Of further significance is that those dates include the four weeks before and the 10 weeks after the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster. In 2001 U.S. infant mortality was 6.834 per 1,000 live births, increasing to 6.845 in 2007. All years from 2002 to 2007 were higher than the 2001 rate.

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Chernobyl: A Million Casualties

EnviroVideo presents Enviro Close-Up with Karl Grossman. Dr. Sherman is interviewed on the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl meltdown.

http://blip.tv/envirovideo/chernobyl-a-million-casualties-4940000

The video is also available with Japanese subtitles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRO0wXjblJc

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Chernobyl: Consequences of the catastrophe 25 years later

San Francisco BayView, April 27, 2011
by Janette D. Sherman, M.D., and Alexey V. Yablokov, Ph.D.

Editor’s note: The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists asked Dr. Sherman, recognized worldwide for her expertise on Chernobyl, to write this article last year, then rejected it just before deadline, probably considering it too alarming. In it, she reports the widespread expectation of another nuclear power plant failure and the catastrophic consequences. Now, a few months later, the world commemorates the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl while watching the Fukushima meltdown.

For more than 50 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have abided by an agreement that in essence allows them to cover each other’s back – sometimes at the expense of public health. It’s a delicate balance between cooperation and collusion.

Signed on May 28, 1959, at the 12th World Health Assembly, the agreement states:

“Whenever either organization proposes to initiate a programme or activity on a subject in which the other organization has or may have a substantial interest, the first party shall consult the other with a view to adjusting the matter by mutual agreement,” and continues: The IAEA and the WHO “recognize that they may find it necessary to apply certain limitations for the safeguarding of confidential information furnished to them. They therefore agree that nothing in this agreement shall be construed as requiring either of them to furnish such information as would, in the judgment of the other party possessing the information, interfere with the orderly conduct of its operation.”

The WHO mandate is to look after the health on our planet, while the IAEA is to promote nuclear energy. In light of recent industrial failures involving nuclear power plants, many prominent scientists and public health officials have criticized WHO’s non-competing relationship with IEAE that has stymied efforts to address effects and disseminate information about the 1986 Chernobyl accident, so that current harm may be documented and future harm prevented.

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Interview with Chernobyl Cleanup Survivor

Natalia Manzurova, one of the few survivors among those directly involved in the long cleanup of Chernobyl, was a 35-year-old engineer at a nuclear plant in Ozersk, Russia, in April 1986 when she and 13 other scientists were told to report to the wrecked, burning plant in the northern Ukraine.

It was just four days after the world’s biggest nuclear disaster spewed enormous amounts of radiation into the atmosphere and forced the evacuation of 100,000 people.

Manzurova and her colleagues were among the roughly 800,000 “cleaners” or “liquidators” in charge of the removal and burial of all the contamination in what’s still called the dead zone.

She spent 4 1/2 years helping clean the abandoned town of Pripyat, which was less than two miles from the Chernobyl reactors. The plant workers lived there before they were abruptly evacuated.

Manzurova, now 59 and an advocate for radiation victims worldwide, has the “Chernobyl necklace” — a scar on her throat from the removal of her thyroid — and myriad health problems. But unlike the rest of her team members, who she said have all died from the results of radiation poisoning, and many other liquidators, she’s alive.

AOL News spoke with Manzurova about the nuclear disaster in Japan with the help of a translator.

Click here to read the interview.

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