Tokyo, Japan – Greenpeace today called on the Japanese government to drop plans to raise the official limits of radiation exposure for children in Fukushima Prefecture, 20 milliSievert per year – the same level as nuclear power plant workers, and twenty times the internationally recognised annual allowable dose for adults.
The international environmental organisation has also asked the governments of nations including Germany, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Canada, Greece, India, France and Italy, to raise the issue with Japan.
“It is utterly outrageous to raise the exposure levels for children to twenty times the maximum limit for adults. The Japanese government cannot simply increase safety limits for the sake political convenience or to give the impression of normality”, said Junichi Sato, Greenpeace Japan Executive Director. “One of the lessons learned from Chernobyl was that children are far more vulnerable to the effects of radiation, and the Fukushima nuclear crisis will expose them to much higher risks of developing radiation related diseases due to contamination”.
“While the declaration of a 20km no-entry zone around Fukushima Daiichi is a legitimate, if late response to the crisis, the Japanese authorities are still underplaying the risks to human health throughout the greater Fukushima area”.
“Greenpeace radiation monitoring teams found highly contaminated hot spots in densely-populated areas of Fukushima City and Koriyama City. These areas need to be cleaned up immediately or evacuated, and the people made acutely aware of the risks they face – not made to think everything is ok with new safety limits”, said Sato.
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