To: Kan Naoto, Prime Minister of Japan
From: Tomiyama Yoko, Chairperson, Consumers Union of Japan (NPO)
March 18, 2011
Urgent Proposal Regarding Emergency Measures for Pregnant Women and Children in the Tohoku Region
Consumers Union of Japan is committed to a sound and healthy future for our children. We rely only on individual membership fees as the basis for our activities, thus ensuring the independence of our ideas as an NPO.
We feel very strongly for the people who have been affected by the huge earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region of Japan. There is very serious damage in many parts of the region. We are very concerned about the grave situation caused by the damage to the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. We are feeling particularly apprehensive about the influence of radioactivity on the residents in their immediate vicinity.
Since Consumers Union of Japan was founded in April, 1969, we have strongly appealed against nuclear power generation on the basis that radioactivity cannot coexist with living beings. There are no safe limits. We have tried to stop nuclear power before such a serious accident occurred, using all possible means at our disposal to cooperate and work together with other networks of concerned individuals and anti-nuclear groups.
We strongly request a conversion to an energy policy that does not depend on nuclear power generation.
We cannot help getting very angry and mortified about the reports of the severe damage at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant No. 1.
Currently, our misgivings are deepening regarding the exposure to the workers who are doing their utmost to prevent the worst case scenario from happening.
We strongly request that every measure is taken to ensure that the workers are not exposed to radioactivity.
In addition, we are concerned about the influence on the citizens living in the surrounding environment, in particular pregnant women and children. The effect on the embryo and on infants due to doses of radioactivity has been found to be about 10 times stronger than on children, and about 100 times stronger than on adults (National Academy of Sciences. NAS, 1972).
Hour by hour, the situation appears to be changing to a more serious state, as the forecasts of damage due to radioactivity have become more and more prominent.
We strongly propose the following while at the same time we sincerely request that thorough measures be taken so that the worst possible situation is not allowed to happen:
1. Immediately expand the evacuation zone to prepare for every contingency, and make every effort to help pregnant women and children in particular to take shelter at a further distance away from the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant No. 1.
2. Ensure that every effort is made to provide the people in the evacuation zone with food and water that have not been exposed to or polluted by radioactivity.