Mother's Milk Sing-Along with Margo Schepart performing at the June
18, 2011 Hudson Clearwater Revival Festival
Photos from the Mothers Milk Project display at the Hudson River Clearwater
Revival Festival at Croton-on-Hudson on June 18, 2011.
Fukushima
parents dish the dirt in protest over radiation levels
Furious Fukushima parents dump school playground earth that may have
radiation levels well above the old safety level
Parents in Fukushima are angry over rule changes which mean that school
children can be exposed to 20 times more radiation than was previously
permissible. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters.
Jonathan Watts in Tokyo The Guardian, Mon 2 May 2011 16.43 BST
Furious
parents in Fukushima have delivered a bag of radioactive playground
earth to education officials in protest at moves to weaken nuclear
safety standards in schools.
Children can now be exposed to 20 times more radiation than was previously
permissible. The new regulations have prompted outcry. A senior adviser
resigned and the prime minister, Naoto Kan, was criticised by politicians
from his own party.
Ministers have defended the increase in the acceptable safety level
from 1 to 20 millisieverts per year as a necessary measure to guarantee
the education of hundreds of thousands of children in Fukushima prefecture,
location of the nuclear plant that suffered a partial meltdown and
several explosions after the earthquake and tsunami on 11 March.
It is estimated that 75% of Fukushima’s schools may have radiation
levels above the old safety level of 1 millisievert. The local authorities
in Koriyama have tried to ease the problem by digging up the top layer
of soil in school and day centre playgrounds, but residents near the
proposed dump site have objected.
The new standard of 20 millisieverts a year – equivalent to
the annual maximum dose for German nuclear workers – will mean
those schools remain open, but parents and nuclear opponents are angry
that safety concerns are being ignored.
A group claiming to represent 250 parents in Fukushima visited the
upper house of parliament and presented government officials with
a bag of radioactive dirt from the playground of one of the affected
schools. A geiger counter clicked over it with a reading of 38 millisieverts.
“How dare they tell us it is safe for our children,” said
Sachiko Satou of the Protect Fukushima Children from Radiation Association.
“This is disgusting. They can’t play outside with such
risks. If the government won’t remove the radioactive dirt then
we’ll do it ourselves and dump it outside the headquarters of
Tokyo Electric.”
Greenpeace, Friends of the Ea rth and other environment and anti-nuclear
groups submitted a petition against the regulations. They accused
the Nuclear Safety Commission of meekly accepting the new safety limit
after just two hours of closed-door discussions with government officials.
However, representatives of the commission denied agreeing that 20
millisieverts was safe. Education ministry officials fudged demands
for an explanation. “I think 20 millisieverts is safe but I
don’t think it’s good,” said Itaru Watanabe of the
education ministry, drawing howls of derision from the audience of
participants. He promised the government would carefully monitor the
situation and do all it could to get radioactivity down to 1 millisievert.
The health impacts are disputed. Physicians for Social Responsibility
– a US-based Nobel prize winning organisation that opposes nuclear
power – said children were more vulnerable than adults. It said
the new acceptable limit exposed children to a one in 200 risk of
getting cancer, compared with a one in 500 risk for adults.
“It is unconscionable to increase the allowable dose for children
to 20 millisieverts,” the group said in a statement. “There
is no way this level of exposure can be considered safe.”
This is not the first time the government has shifted safety baselines
since the start of the crisis. Permissible levels of radiation exposure
for nuclear workers were amended soon af ter the disaster struck to
allow emergency operations at the stricken Fukushima reactor. Several
weeks later the cabinet allowed the plant’s operator, Tokyo
Electric, to violate regulations by dumping 11,500 tonnes of contaminated
water into the Pacific. The radioactivity of the discharge was 100
times higher than the acceptable limit. The government says it has
to take unprecedented measures to deal with an unprecedented disaster.
Kan has lost one of his chief scientific advisers over the latest
decision. Toshiso Kosako – a Tokyo University professor who
was called in to help deal with the crisis – walked out on Friday
and has since accused the government of ad hoc policy making and contravening
internationally accepted norms for the sake of political expediency.
Kan has also come under fire from lawmakers in his ruling Democratic
party.
Mori Yuko, an upper house member, said she was disgusted by the decision
to loosen the safety limit. “Would politicians and bureaucrats
allow their own children to go to a contaminated school,” she
said. “This makes me furious.”
She called for more rigorous and widespread health monitoring of children
and criticised an earlier government policy to withhold data about
radiation levels and wind direction. After a public outcry these figures
are now published daily in newspapers, but the allegations of cover-ups
and shifting safety baselines are taking a heavy political toll.
A mere 1.3% of respondents in a weekend poll by the Kyodo news agency
thought Kan was exercising sufficient leadership. But many people
also criticise the main opposition Liberal Democratic party for lax
nuclear regulation while it was in power.
Citizens
arm themselves with umbrellas, raincoats, boots, Korea Times, April
7, 2011:
… The Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) said radioactive
iodine and cesium were found in rainwater collected in the early
morning at a checkpoint on the island. The concentration level of
iodine-131 was 2.02 becquerels per liter (Bq/l), that of cesium-137,
0.538 Bq/l, and that of cesium-134, 0.333 Bq/l. …
Following the news that minuscule radioactive substances were detected
on Jeju, people in all parts of the country carried umbrellas to
work or school even though the rainfall was light.
Parents h ad their children not only use umbrellas but also wear
raincoats, rubber boots and even masks. Some of them gave their
children a ride to school, with streets near schools congested.
In Gyeonggi Province, about 130 pre-, elementary and middle schools
were closed after the regional educational office allowed school
heads to close them if they deemed it necessary. More than 40 others
shortened school hours. …
Read the report here.
UCB Rain Water Sampling Results, University of California, Berkeley,
Department of Nuclear Engineering:
Iodine-131 level in rainwater sample taken on the roof of Etcheverry
Hall on UC Berkeley campus, March 23, 2011 from 9:06-18:00 PDT
20.1 Becquerel per liter (Bq/L)
Read the report here: Radioactive Iodine-131 in rainwater sample
near San Francisco 18,100% above federal drinking water standard
Read more:
“Yellow rain” around Tokyo caused by pollen officials
say – Rain may have contained radioactivity
“Yellow rain” recently reported in Tokyo also happened
after Chernobyl — Government assured residents it was pollen
Rain stimulating “reagents” used during Chernobyl to
protect Moscow from fallout — Expert recommends same over
Pacific for Fukushima
NY Times contributor confirms California rainwater 181 times above
drinking water standards for radioactive iodine-131
Radioactive Iodine-131 in rainwater sampl e near San Francisco 18,100%
above federal drinking water standard.
Radioactive
iodine found in breast milk of Japanese mothers
The breast milk of four Japanese mothers has been found to contain
small quantities of radioactive iodine.
By Danielle Demetriou in Tokyo 11:00AM BST 21 Apr 2011
The government faced calls for a full investigation into the impact
of the nuclear disaster on mothers and babies following the discovery.
The radiation contamination came to light after tests were conducted
on breast milk samples taken from nine women living northeast or east
of Tokyo.
Four of these women were found to be contaminated, with the highest
reading of 36.3 becquerels of radioactive iodine per kg detected in
the milk of the mother of an eight-month-old baby in Kashiwa, Chiba
prefecture.
There are no current legal safety levels for radioactive substances
in breast milk as set by the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan.
However, the breast milk readings were below the safety limit of 100
becquerels per kg of tap water consumption by infants under one year
of age and no radioactive cesium was found.
The findings of the study, conducted by a citizen's group in Japan,
has sparked concerns surrounding the impact of the nuclear crisis
on mothers and babies.
''We cannot yet determine safety, but infants drink breast milk,''
Kikuko Murakami, who heads the group, told Kyodo News. ''We want the
government to conduct an extensive investigation swiftly.'' Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear power plant is believed to have been emitting radioactive
substances since it was severely damaged in the March 11 earthquake
and tsunami.
Workers at the stricken power plant were continuing to work around
the clock in increasingly challenging conditions in order to bring
crucial cooling functions under control.
A Japanese newspaper meanwhile has alleged close links between Tepco,
which runs the plant, and the opposition Liberal Democratic Party.
Recently retired senior officials are alleged to have donated more
than £140,000 to the party over the last three years.
Masataka Shimizu, the Tepco president , has said the company had not
made any political donations since 1974.
Tepco denied any systematic involvement in the donations.
Analysis
of Goat Milk collected in September 2010
25 Miles Downwind of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Station
Has Detectable Levels of Strontium-90 and Strontium-89
Strontium-89,
a carcinogen produced in nuclear fission, has been found in
goat milk 25 miles downwind of the Indian Point Nuclear Power
Station. The milk was collected in September 2010. Strontium-89
has a half-life of 50 days. When strontium-89 is detected
in a milk sample, its source is a recent fission event, not
resdue from nuclear weapons fallout or Chernobyl. Strontium-90,
also a carcinogen which, when ingested, can cause bone cancer,
disease of the immune system and other illness, was also found
in the goat milk. Strontium-90 has a half-life of 28 years.
Radiation bioaccumulates in the human body.
The pathways for radioactivity released by a nuclear power
plant to concentrate in goat milk include inhalation of airborne
radiation and ingestion of radionuclides from drinking water
and pasture grass.
The detection of strontium-89 in the goat milk is further
evidence that Indian Point is poisoning our environment and
endangering our children.
The risk of releases of strontium-89 and other carcinogens
from Indian Point can be significantly decreased by shutting
down these dangerous nuclear reactors.
Mothers
Milk Project: Fusushima demands a Connecticut response
to protect mothers and children living near Indian Point
Nuclear Power Station.
Mothers
Milk Project
www.MothersMilkProject.org
March 21, 2011
Hon. Dannel Malloy
Governor
State House
Hartford CT 06101
Hon. Daniel Esty
Commissioner
Department of Environmental Protection
79 Elm Street
Hartford CT 06106
Dear Governor Malloy and Commissioner Esty:
I co-direct the Mothers Milk Project, which is dedicated
to collecting mammalian milk samples in the vicinity of
the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant for their assessment
by a qualified laboratory for levels of radioactivity.
Since the project was instituted in 2008, many of our samples
– particularly from human donors and goats residing
within 30 miles of Indian Point - have testified positively
for strontium-90, a carcinogen which settles in the bones
and teeth. Developing fetuses and growing babies are particularly
vulnerable to its toxic effects, which include bone cancer,
leukemia and suppression of the immune system.
Most disturbingly, some of our samples have also tested
positively for the presence of strontium-89, also a carcinogen,
which has a short half-life of 50 days. (Strontium-90 has
a half-life of 28 years.) The detectable presence of strontium-89
in human and other mammalian milk indicates that the donors
have been exposed to a recent release of nuclear fission
products.
As you know, the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant is located
on the Hudson River in Buchanan, New York. Greenwich, Connecticut,
is the state’s town closet to the plant (approximately
14 miles). Stamford, New Canaan and Ridgefield are the next-closest.
Most of Fairfield County is located downwind of and within
50 miles of Indian Point.
As the horrific events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
complex in Japan enfold, we must take action to protect
our own vulnerable populations. Dairy milk within 20 miles
of the nuclear complex has been found so contaminated with
Iodine-131 that Japanese officials have banned its sale.
It is feared that food contamination will spread widely.
With New York State, Connecticut is opposing Indian point
relicensing in formal adjudicatory proceedings.
This step is not enough to protect Connecticut’s people,
resources and food supplies.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has recently identified
Indian Point as the nation’s highest-risk nuclear
power plant in terms of consequences from an earthquake
event. It is certainly a prime terrorist target as well
and nuclear meltdown could devastate the northeast corridor
of the United States for untold generations.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, while New York Attorney
General, called Indian Point “a catastrophe waiting
to happen.”
We urge you to take the following immediate steps:
(1) Demand immediate shutdown of Indian Point‘s two
operating reactors;
(2) Demand expansion of the evacuation zone from 10 to 50
miles;
(3) Demand distribution of potassium iodide to Connecticut
residents within 50 miles of Indian Point;
(4) Assist in fortification of Indian Point’s vulnerable
infrastructure, vital components and back-up power.
We further request the opportunity to meet with you to expand
upon our concerns and share the information we have developed.
That
cloud spewing out of the Indian Point nuclear plant last
month wasn't a smoke signal - it was radioactive steam.
Read more>>>
Di
Paola/Bloomberg - Traces of radioactivity were released
via steam leak at Indian Point nuclear power plant, but
officials said there was no cause for concern.
Mothers
Milk Project at Hawk Watch Festival and Green Bazaar!
Meet
Deo and Theo, 3-week-old babies of Mothers Milk Project
participant Cindy-Lu!
Note to Breastfeeding Moms: Bring us a sample of your milk!
The Hawk Watch Festival and Green Bazaar takes place Saturday
September 19 and Sunday September 20 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
at Audubon Greenwich, 613 Riversville Road. $10 for adults
18 and older, $7 for youth 3 and older, and free for under
3. 203-869-5272, www.greenwich.audubon.org.
Mothers
Milk Project at Clearwater Hudson River Revival Festival in
Croton-on-Hudson, NY, June 20 and 21.
Mothers
Milk Project co-directors Margo Schepart (l) and Nancy Burton
welcome visitors to their booth and encourage lactating mothers
to share their breastmilk confidentially for analysis to detect
radioactivity.
Cindy-Lu-the-Goat
and her kids, Luna and Dude, are the star attraction
of the Mothers Milk Project display. They live 25 miles downwind
of Indian Point. Cindy-Lu's milk contains strontium-90 and
strontium-89, carcinogens especially harmful to developing
babies and young children. Sr-90 and Sr-89 are routinely released
by the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant 6 miles north of the
festival site.
Join
the Mothers Milk Project at the Beacon Sloop Club CORN FESTIVAL
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Noon to 5 PM at the Beacon NY Waterfront
Bring us a sample of your breast milk - we will test it
for radioactivity for free!
Take Metro-North to Beacon Station
Visit www.beaconsloop.org
Help
spread the word! Download
this flier and share it with your friends and post it
in your community!
PLEASE
DONATE A SAMPLE OF YOUR BREAST MILK!
We
are collecting mothers milk within a 50-mile radius
of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant in New York
and Connecticut.
The milk will be analyzed confidentially for traces
of radioactivity - strontium-90 - which is routinely
released by Indian Point.
Strontium-90 causes birth defects, bone cancer and leukemia.
Exposure increases risks for breast, lung and other
soft tissue cancers.
Help us create a database of information.
The New York State Department of Health and Indian Point’s
owner stopped sampling cow’s milk near Indian
Point in 1991 - just as strontium-90 levels were increasing.
They never sampled human breast milk.
Visit www.MothersMilkProject.org!
Mothers
Milk Project at Indian Point Benefit
Join
the Mothers Milk Project at its table at the Monday, June 30,
2008 Indian Point Safe Energy Council benefit at Lincoln Center
in New York City. The event includes two film screenings: the
New York premiere of award-winning "Woven Ways," which
explores the impact of uranium mining on the Navajo people,
and "Nowhere to Run," about consequences of an accident
at the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant in Buchanan, New York.
6:30 P.M. to 10:30 P.M. Walter Reader Theatre at Lincoln Center,
165 West 65th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam. Tickets
$20.
Dear
Muscoot Farm,
Please share Pineapple's milk with the Mothers Milk Project!
Muscoot
Farm is a beautiful working and educational farm located
exactly 10 miles downwind of the Indian Point Nuclear Power
Station in Somers, New York. Pineapple, the Jersey cow pictured
here, is milked twice a day. Some of her milk is fed to her
calf, Papaya, and the rest is fed to the Tamworth pigs (pictured
here taking their morning nap) as swill. Westchester County
owns Muscoot Farm and it is well maintained by Westchester County
taxpayers. The Mothers Milk Project is asking Muscoot Farm to
share one quart of Pineapple's milk once a month to be tested
for radioactivity. The Mothers Milk Project is also asking for
samples of goat milk from Isabelle (left) and Skye (right).
We hope to extend special thanks on this website to Muscoot
Farm for their contributions to our project!
Mothers
Milk Project Signs Up Breastfeeding Mothers at Clearwater Festival
on June 21
Mothers
Milk Project co-directors Nancy Burton and Gail Merrill signed on
a dozen more lactating mothers from New York and Connecticut communities
to donate their breastmilk samples for radioactivity testing. Pictured
here is a New York City mother and her baby who signed on to the Project.
Cindy-Lu-the-Goat, who visited the Festival with her kids, Hannah
and Henry, gave her first live radio interview with WBAI. George Amarant,
of Haddam, Connecticut, dropped by to tell us he kept three milking
goats near his home one mile west of the now-defunct Connecticut Yankee
Nuclear Power Plant in the 1970s. He said the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission told him they would test his goats' milk for Iodine-131
but not strontium-90 because they predicted the strontium-90 would
be below detectable levels.
Mothers
Milk Project Invites Lactating Mothers at
Clearwater Hudson River Revival Festival to
Give Milk Samples For Indian Point Study
The Mothers Milk Project invites lactating women to share samples
of their breastmilk at the annual Clearwater Hudson River Revival.
The Project will share a booth with WestCan (Westchester Citizens
Awareness Network). Where: Croton Point Park, Croton NY When: Saturday and Sunday, June 21-22 from 12 noon to dusk,
rain or shine.
For more information and directions visit: www.Clearwater.org
and www.IPSECinfo.org.
Listen
to the Mothers Milk Project interview with Rebecca Myles on WBAI-Pacifica
Radio, 99.5 FM on the June 18, 2008 evening news from 6 to 6:30 PM
(repeated at 11 PM) and streamed live at www.wbai.org.
Legendary
songwriter Pete Seeger joined Mothers Milk Project leaders as they
accepted a donation of mother's milk at the Strawberry Festival in
Beacon, New York on June 15, 2008
Fifteen more breastfeeding mothers signed on to donate their milk
to have it tested for levels of strontium-90 and other radioisotopes
routinely emitted by the Indian Point Nuclear Power Station in Buchanan,
New York.
Cindy-Lu-the-Goat,
also a milk donor, and her kids Hannah and Henry greeted visitors
to the Mothers Milk Project booth.
Breastfeeding
mothers offered samples of their milk on June 5, 2008 to launch the
Mothers Milk Project to test for radionuclides within a 50-mile radius
of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant in Buchanan, New York. A milk
donation was also made by Nubian Goat Cindy-Lu, mother of Hannah and
Henry, pictured to the right.
PRESS CONFERENCE
was held at
227 Silvermine Road, New Canaan, Connecticut
on Thursday, June 5, 12 noon
Contact: info@mothersmilkproject.org
The
Mothers Milk Project is being launched on June 5, 2008 to begin a
systematic sampling of mothers milk produced by humans and other mammals
living within 50 miles of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Station in
Buchanan, New York.
Indian
Point's owner and the New York State Department of Health stopped
sampling cow's milk near Indian Point in 1991 and have never tested
human breast milk.
The
project is an unpredecented campaign to create a database of findings
of the potential presence of radioisotopes in milk of mammalians,
including humans, near the nuclear power plant.
Indian
Point, in common with all nuclear power plants, is designed to routinely
release fission products into the air. These include strontium-90,
which has a half-life of 30 years and remains biologically active
for 600 years. Strontium-90 mimics calcium in its chemical composition
and is readily taken up by bone cells and teeth, where it continuously
emits pulses of energy which disrupt the functions of nearby cells.
Strontium-90 exposure is linked to bone cancer, leukemia, diseases
of the immune system and cancer of soft tissue including breast and
lung. Strontium-90 is only one of more than 100 radioisotopes routinely
released by Indian Point. All are carcinogens and all.are most harmful
to young children and developing babies.
We
encourage breastfeeding mothers to participate in this program by
donating a cup of their breast milk monthly. Each sample will be divided
into four parts: one for the New York State Department of Health,
one for Entergy, Indian Point's owner, one for the project's independent
laboratory, and one to be retained by the project. There is no cost
and all samples will be taken confidentially with results anonymous.
The
Mothers Milk Project will also include dairy cow and goat milk samplings.
Other mammals may be included as well.
The
Mothers Milk Project is designed to inform the community about a known
hazard - radiation - which is insidious because it cannot be seen,
tasted, smelled or detected except with sophisticated equipment and
which is biologically harmful at any degree of exposure.
Please
return to this website for future updates.
To
donate milk to the Mothers Milk Project, click
here