{"id":11270,"date":"2015-08-20T08:31:07","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T13:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=11270"},"modified":"2015-08-20T08:31:07","modified_gmt":"2015-08-20T13:31:07","slug":"fukushima-thousands-have-already-died-thousands-more-will-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=11270","title":{"rendered":"Fukushima: Thousands Have Already Died, Thousands More Will Die"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fukushima: Thousands Have Already Died, Thousands More Will Die<\/a><\/h3>\n

Official data from Fukushima<\/a>\u00a0show that nearly 2,000 people died from the effects of evacuations necessary to avoid high radiation exposures from the disaster.<\/p>\n

The uprooting to unfamiliar areas, cutting of family ties, loss of social support networks, disruption, exhaustion, poor physical conditions and disorientation can and do result in many people, in particular older people, dying.<\/p>\n

Increased suicide<\/a>\u00a0has occurred among younger and older people following the Fukushima evacuations, but the trends are unclear.<\/p>\n

A Japanese Cabinet Office report stated that, between March 2011 and July 2014,\u00a056 suicides in Fukushima<\/a>\u00a0Prefecture were linked to the nuclear accident. This should be taken as a minimum, rather than a maximum, figure.<\/p>\n

Mental health consequences<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is necessary to include the mental health consequences of radiation exposures and evacuations. For example,\u00a0Becky Martin has stated<\/a>\u00a0her PhD research at Southampton University in the UK shows that \u201cthe most significant impacts of radiation emergencies are often in our minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

She adds: \u201cImagine that you\u2019ve been informed that your land, your water, the air that you have breathed may have been polluted by a deadly and invisible contaminant. Something with the capacity to take away your fertility, or affect your unborn children.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven the most resilient of us would be concerned \u2026 many thousands of radiation emergency survivors have subsequently gone on to develop Post-Trauma Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety disorders as a result of their experiences and the uncertainty surrounding their health.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is likely that these fears, anxieties, and stresses will act to magnify the effects of evacuations, resulting in even more old people dying or people committing suicide.<\/p>\n

Such considerations should not be taken as arguments against evacuations, however. They are an important, life-saving strategy. But, as argued by Becky Martin,<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to provide greatly improved social support following resettlement and extensive long-term psychological care to all radiation emergency survivors, to improve their health outcomes and preserve their futures.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fukushima: Thousands Have Already Died, Thousands More Will Die Official data from Fukushima\u00a0show that nearly 2,000 people died from the effects of evacuations necessary to avoid high radiation exposures from the disaster. The uprooting to unfamiliar areas, cutting of family ties, loss of social support networks, disruption, exhaustion, poor physical conditions and disorientation can and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3334,340,452,2279,579,8296,2142],"class_list":["post-11270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-anxiety","tag-fukushima","tag-japan","tag-mental-health","tag-nuclear-power","tag-ptsd","tag-radiation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11271,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11270\/revisions\/11271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}