Tokyo- (PanOrient News) Greenpeace International Executive Director Dr Kumi Naidoo criticized Japanese government’s response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis, and its ongoing "failure" to protect the health and welfare of its people.
At a Tokyo press conference held today at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, Dr. Naidoo unveiled a sample of contaminated soil from a Fukushima playground and said "on Tuesday I had the privilege of meeting with both teachers and school children in Fukushima. Looking at innocent faces of the children, I found it difficult to contemplate the dangerously high levels of radiation they are being exposed to on a daily basis." "While the Japanese government has made some efforts at decontamination, it is not nearly enough. These are real people we are dealing with here, not statistics."
Dr Naidoo accompanied a Greenpeace radiation monitoring team this week as it undertook further contamination testing on the streets of central Fukushima city. The team found average levels of gamma radiation contamination at around 2-3 µSv/h (microSievert per hour) at ground level, about 25-40 times above normal. The team said they were alarmed to learn that measurements at contaminated hotspots ranged from 9 µSv/h to as high as 45 µSv/h, particularly dose rates of 0.5 µSv/h - seven times normal background levels - could still be found at a kindergarten, despite having been already being decontaminated by the authorities.
PanOrient News | Fukushima Citizens Remain Exposed to High Levels of Radiation: Greenpeace Warns
At a Tokyo press conference held today at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, Dr. Naidoo unveiled a sample of contaminated soil from a Fukushima playground and said "on Tuesday I had the privilege of meeting with both teachers and school children in Fukushima. Looking at innocent faces of the children, I found it difficult to contemplate the dangerously high levels of radiation they are being exposed to on a daily basis." "While the Japanese government has made some efforts at decontamination, it is not nearly enough. These are real people we are dealing with here, not statistics."
Dr Naidoo accompanied a Greenpeace radiation monitoring team this week as it undertook further contamination testing on the streets of central Fukushima city. The team found average levels of gamma radiation contamination at around 2-3 µSv/h (microSievert per hour) at ground level, about 25-40 times above normal. The team said they were alarmed to learn that measurements at contaminated hotspots ranged from 9 µSv/h to as high as 45 µSv/h, particularly dose rates of 0.5 µSv/h - seven times normal background levels - could still be found at a kindergarten, despite having been already being decontaminated by the authorities.
PanOrient News | Fukushima Citizens Remain Exposed to High Levels of Radiation: Greenpeace Warns
