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Kyoto is nearly 300 miles away from Fukushima ... there is absolutely zero danger. For that matter, there's zero danger to the greater Tokyo area. In fact, unless you're in the towns within the 30 km exclusion zone, you're completely safe. Don't listen to self-purported "experts" talking about the food or a "China syndrome" or other such nonsense.
Kyoto is nearly 300 miles away from Fukushima ... there is absolutely zero danger. For that matter, there's zero danger to the greater Tokyo area. In fact, unless you're in the towns within the 30 km exclusion zone, you're completely safe. Don't listen to self-purported "experts" talking about the food or a "China syndrome" or other such nonsense.
First is prevailing winds of Japan. Honshu (the main island) sees winds that primarily blow from south to north east over the pacific. Due to the prevailing wind currents, the vast, vast majority of the fallout fell over the pacific ocean, where it is far since dispersed since 2011. There were maybe 4 days when the prevailing winds went south but, luckily, the fallout happened during the rainy season, so the majority of the fallout got mixed with rain and harmlessly got filtered into the groundwater. By now, the currents have washed it out into the ocean or into waste water recovery plants that treat the water.
Second is anecdotal. My extended family lives in Japan. They went out with radiation detectors (one works for a university in Japan) and tested the vicinity of southern Tokyo, Yokohama, Odawara, Itami, and those areas. They found one hot spot but even then, it is debatable as whether the source was the fallout or naturally occurring in sooty ash waste byproducts of a nearby factory. They tested continuously from April to August of 2011. Since then, no radiation levels exceeding the maximum recommended dosage (by American standards, NOT Japanese) have occurred.
Contrary to popular belief, many of the things we live with, eat, breathe, and use daily are radioactive. You get more radiation from using your microwave or flying in a plane than what you will experience even in a year in Japan in Tokyo. Further, there's evidence that random radiation flareups due to nuclear testing done in the USA and Soviet Union cause more issues from radioactive dust than will ever happen in Japan. If anything, I would trust living in Japan over the USA for radiation exposure! Except the few towns around the damaged plants of course.
Now, if you decide to take a fishing trip in the northeast of Japan, within 30 km of Fukushima, and decide to eat some bottom feeders or some tuna ... well then I would advise against it. But the vast majority of seafood in Japan and the area actually come from even further north and to the south of there. So the reality is you won't be poisoned by food either.
If all what I said doesn't convince you, here's a good summary written in plain English:
“In the areas of Japan I visited, radiation dose rates were elevated to about three to four times typical natural radiation dose rates (which are about .1 mrem per hour), but nowhere near as high as natural radiation levels I’ve measured in parts of Iran.”
Actually, I think the situation in Japan at the Fukushima plants is much more serious then we've probably led to believe. They don't even know what happened to the reactor cores. Will the radiation eventually reach the Tokyo water supply? What about the Pacific Ocean food chain?
Anyone who says everything is perfectly safe is deluded.
Actually, I think the situation in Japan at the Fukushima plants is much more serious then we've probably led to believe. They don't even know what happened to the reactor cores. Will the radiation eventually reach the Tokyo water supply? What about the Pacific Ocean food chain?
Anyone who says everything is perfectly safe is deluded.
Actually, fishermen in seattle and japan havr been doing their own testing of their fish, and found absolutely no radiation in the fish. Hey they dont want their families, who eat the same fish, getting sick either! The few samples that got caught in California that had higher than normal radiation was way overblown by the press and did a real disservice to honest reporting in favor of ratings. Shameful really. Tuna naturally is radioactive, whatcha think of that? Gonna stop eating tuna? I'm not. Bananas are radioactive. Gonna stop eating bananas? You'd be bananas to stop eating those.
Seriously folks, if you honestly believe the seepage of radiation from fukushima into the pacific at the levels they have been detecting is enough to contaminate the wider food supply... you may as well stay at home, lock your doors, and lay down on the floor because your chances of dying by gunshot, lightning, car accident, etc are millions of times higher than even getting sick by radiation.
Honestly I think this whole hoopla is being blown far out of proportion by the general population's lack of trust in honest and ethical science with the boogeyman "well what if" and the "yes, but..." sort of "journalism" in favor of ratings and pandering to the irrational fears in all of us. I wish people would dig into the sources they read, but honestly, people want easy to digest information and choose to be afraid. Fine. Be that way. I personally won't be a chicken little. The moment the FDA and scientists from Berkeley and U of Washington come back and say there's an issue, then come find me. Otherwise, I'll be enjoying my salmon and sashimi and the wonderful history of Japan when I travel there next, thank you very much.
Facts and data. Show them to me. If you can't you are just another armchair hysteric. Get over it.
Last edited by eskercurve; 01-31-2014 at 10:55 PM..
Actually, I think the situation in Japan at the Fukushima plants is much more serious then we've probably led to believe. They don't even know what happened to the reactor cores. Will the radiation eventually reach the Tokyo water supply? What about the Pacific Ocean food chain?
Anyone who says everything is perfectly safe is deluded.
I agree, the situation is not under control and I think they are trying to cover it up and act like everything is OK
Nothing to worry about. You could drive up to the reactor (if it weren't illegal) get out of your car, take some photos, then drive back to Tokyo and have no negative health effects. Don't go licking the pavement or drinking from open streams within the exclusion zones; that's about the only way you can put yourself at (minor) risk.
Building a house inside the exclusion zone in an area that hasn't been decontaminated and eating from your garden, for 30 years, would probably elevate your cancer risk by a significant percentage.
Otherwise, you are only at risk if you happen to wear a tinfoil hat.
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