Unfounded Fears and the Triumph of Marketing: Rome More Radioactive than Tokyo

The problems with the Fukushima reactors continue. The fears about wide spread contamination from the Fukushima nuclear reactors continue in the west. This fear leads many people to have irrational and baseless, unfounded worries.

KABUKI ROCKS - O-EDO  カブキロックス お江戸

(O-EDO IS THE OLD NAME FOR TOKYO)

Trust that, if you are living in Tokyo, 230 kilometers away (or farther), from the crippled reactors, in your daily lives, you are taking much higher risks in your lifestyle than the elevated background radiation risks posed by fallout from Fukushima. Especially if you drink excessively, smoke cigarettes, work or live near a busy street, eat too much processed foods, use too much salt in your food, don't exercise... Blah, blah, blah...

Of course, if you live near Fukushima, within 30 kilometers (18 miles) that is another story but, believe me, the vast majority of the world's population does not live within a 30 kilometer radius of the stricken nuclear power plants. The majority of the world's population find many ways to shorten their lives on a daily basis, thank you.


Yes, the problems at Fukushima are serious but, once again, we must stick to facts. The exclusion zone around Fukushima is 30 kilometers (18 miles) in accordance with IAEA rules. I feel sorry for those folks living near the plant.


Folks in Tokyo are 230 kilometers away. We are in no danger. The facts bear this out. Daily radiation readings in Tokyo show the levels to be within standard daily "background" radiation levels. The daily levels now in Tokyo are 1,000 times lower than the dose of radiation you'd get on a one-way airplane trip from Narita to New York. Yet some people still panic. To see those daily radiation readings, with information on how to make sense of them, go to here.


Here's another kicker for the panic crowd: Levels of background radiation in Tokyo are less than 1/2 and up to 1/6th the level they are in Rome, Italy on any given day! Don't believe me, the Italian press has reported this fact. 


Rainews.it 24 reports in Tokyo meno radioattiva di Roma:

Roma più radioattiva di Tokyo. E' la sorpresa delle analisi effettuate dalla squadra della Protezione civile italiana, composta da sei persone, giunta oggi nella capitale nipponica. 

I rilievi fatti dai tecnici - comunica l'ambasciata italiana - danno una radioattività di fondo misurata sul tetto dell'ambasciata di 0.04 microsievert/ora. Per riferimento, il valore di radioattività ambientale tipico della città di Roma è di 0.25 microsievert/ora.

Google Translation: 

Rome is more radioactive than Tokyo! That's the surprise announced by a team of analysts from Italian Civil Protection, consisting of six experts, who arrived today in the capital ofJapan.

The remarks made ​​by engineers - at the Italian Embassy - give a background radioactivity measurement on the roof of the embassy in Tokyo of 0.04 microsievert per hour. For your reference, the value of radioactivity in the environment on a typical day in the city of Rome, Italy microsievert is 0.25 per hour.

Here is the link: http://www.rainews24.it/it/news.php?newsid=151021&utm_source=Rainews24+via+twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=news

Even though that was almost a month ago, the last radiation reading for Tsukuba (75 kilometers north of Tokyo towards Fukushima) on April 16th at 8:00 pm was 0.10 microsievert per hour. My God! That's twice it was a month ago! We'd better panic!


But still, that's less than half the rate on a typical day in Rome.

You can bet that when the facts do not bear out the fears you hold, that mass media marketing and massive promotional budgets were spent to create the things you believe in.


That is the way it is supposed to be in a consumer society. 


But some of us are not robots and can think for themselves and do some fact checking without believing mass media hysteria and nonsense. How about you?
  

Examples of Loonies on Japan's Nuclear Accident

You just can't make this stuff up:


First off something I already posted about before, but let's go into more depth today. This stuff is funny. It's from that reputable tabloid know as the Sun UK so you just know it's got to be the truth! Everyone knows, if it's in the Sun, then it's got to be the gospel.... I mean, if it weren't true, they couldn't print it, right?

The shocking headline says it all:  

Starving Brit Keely: My nightmare trapped in City of Ghosts – Tokyo

I'm just going to print most of the story from the Sun and comment here and there. After this nonsense, there is a really fantastic video that you simply must watch at the bottom of this post.... Wait a minute! Her name is Keely Fujiyama? That's not real! Are you kidding me? I'm sure it isn't totally impossible but I've never heard of anyone actually named Fujiyama.

OK. But I'm a sport. I'll play along. After all we are talking about nonsense in the media. But allow me to indulge myself too, okay? Before we go into this craziness here's a little musical interlude to warm you up for this. I do hope you'll grab an drink and start on that before proceeding with the rest of this blog post:

WANDA JACKSON - FUJIYAMA MAMA

From the Sun: 

A BRITISH mum told last night of her terror trapped and starving in the eerie ghost town that is Tokyo after the tsunami.

Keely Fujiyama, 37, phoned The Sun to describe a city in fear of nuclear catastrophe - with streets deserted and food, water and fuel running out.

And she slammed the British Embassy for failing to help expats desperate to escape - after radiation levels from Japan's stricken nuclear reactors reached ten times normal.

The mum of two said: "They fled and left us here to fry. I'm ashamed to call myself British." 


(Ashamed to call yourself British? I know that there's a lot of Aussies, Canadians, Kiwis and Americans here in Japan that can totally understand your feelings there- Mike)

Keely, from Croydon, South London, has lived in Tokyo for ten years after marrying Japanese Ryu Fujiyama.


She said: "I'm stuck inside a third-floor apartment in a part of the city that resembles a ghost-town. Normally the streets bustle like nowhere else on earth. 

(Ghost town!? - Mike)


"But I look outside now and they're completely deserted. It's like London in the zombie movie 28 Days Later. 

Scene from the movie 28 Days Later. Yep. That looks like my neighborhood in Tokyo! - Mike

"The streets are silent. We live near the centre of Tokyo and yet there is no movement at all.
"I'm scared, and shaky with hunger and really, really tired. I've got two hungry children and just a few crisps, oranges and a can of tuna. 

(What? You have potato chips but no beer in the fridge? This is a total disaster! - Mike)


"I've had some juice today but I'm saving the rest for the children. There is no petrol, no water, no food.

(If you mean the convenience stores are all sold out of Cup O Noodle, that's true. - Mike)


"On Tuesday, the radiation levels in Tokyo were ten times above normal and people started to panic. 

(No, lady, the people didn't start to panic you started to panic. That's all. - Mike)


"What if, every day, radiation continues to double? 

(And, what if, every day, my telescopic electronic nipplets grow more tender? - Mike)


"But with all this, the Prime Minister comes on television, telling us to be calm. There are constant aftershocks and I'm not taking my children on the Metro when the roof could fall in.

"My children are already starving. I found three riceballs and some seaweed this morning in a local convenience store and took the last couple of water canisters." 

(You've lived in Japan for more than ten years... We have earthquakes all the time, and you don't have at least a week's worth of food & water stored up? Not a very fast learner are you? Thank god for the corner convenience store. If it weren't for them, you might have to walk two hundred meters for food and water! - Mike)


Mainly, Keely stays in her apartment in Tokyo's Nerima Ku suburb with Alex, four, and Nina, eight. 

(It's good that she stays indoors. This lady sounds like she could be a danger to herself if she were not constantly under surveillance... What with the lions and tigers and bears, oh my! - Mike)


She said: "We stay indoors, with the windows shut, except when my husband goes out to work or to try and find food. 

(Great to see that here are still families living the primitive hunter-gatherer lifestyle even in Tokyo - Mike)

The Fujiyama family in Tokyo during happier times

"At night the streets are dark and eerily quiet. The TV news has told us to take a shower when we've been outside, because of radiation worries. But the water is a funny colour and smells of bleach. There's sometimes a live feed on TV from the nuclear plant.

"But mostly there's just a test card with gentle music and children making origami dragons."

(Origami dragons? What channel is this on? It's just nonstop news on all the channels lady! Take the TV off the kiddies educational channel... You at least know how to work a TV remote control, don't you? - Mike)

Although food shops are empty, Keely and her husband found a car dealership doing a roaring trade as people sought transport to flee the radiation threat. 

(Looking to trade canned food for 2009 Toyota Camry or later model! - Mike)

She said: "We went on Sunday to buy a 4x4. Nobody needs a car in Tokyo - it's not that sort of city - but we figured it might be the only way to get out.

(Oh goody! The family gets to go out car shopping! I get to ride in the front! How fun! - Mike)


"The garage was packed with people who'd had the same thought. The amazing thing is though, that the Japanese are trying their best to help each other.

(Yeah, weird, eh? Just a few paragraphs back you said there was no petrol. Now you say people are dying to buy a car! Go figure. - Mike) 


"The old lady at the corner store gave me a hug. And there's no looting. Nobody's tried to take our water or the little food we have.

(She probably wanted to slap you silly but figured that just a hug might be enough calm you down... I hope you also picked up adult diapers, Keely... Sounds like you must be going through those fast. - Mike)


She said: "The first to flee Tokyo have been British Embassy staff. I repeatedly rang the Tokyo number for our embassy - but there's just a recorded message saying, 'We are not taking calls'.

"I then rang the Foreign Office and got patched through to a crisis line man, who just told me to try and get on a plane.


"I kept telling him we can't even get to the airport but he didn't seem concerned.

"I begged the Foreign Office man, 'Please help me'. But he told me if I raised my voice one more time he was terminating the call. 

(Damned useless bureaucrats. You should have asked to be switched to the department of psychotic disorders...Yes, well... If I had some hysterical woman screaming about not having enough chips on the other end of the phone, I might hang up on her too. - Mike) 


"In desperation, I rang the US embassy and immediately a human voice asked, 'How can I help?' They can't do much as I'm British. 

(Yes, as an American, I can honestly say that we have enough loonies from our own country to deal with in Japan without having to help the Brits with theirs. The "Special Relationship" only goes so far! - Mike)


"If I get out of Tokyo I want to go to America, Australia, anywhere. I have no faith in Britain any more. I don't want to see my country ever again."

Message to US embassy: No matter what you do, don't give this woman a visa!


Thanks so much to the Sun and Keely "Fujiyama" for that invigorating tale of human suffering and that very typically dry British humor. 

Incredibly, hidden underneath this men's fashion store is a

nuclear nightmare in Shibuya just waiting to happen!

And speaking of humor, the Brits don't have all of it as an award must go out to Fox News also for reporting on Shibuya having a nuclear power plant located in a popular disco that has been a Shibuya landmark for decades. Who could have suspected a nuclear power plant inside Shibuya Eggman? 

And now ladies and gentlemen, the plat de resistance of ridiculous nonsense. Did you know that the earthquake and tsunami were not an earthquake and tsunami but actually a US plot to detonate a nuclear weapon under the sea to get Japan to fall in line with the New World Order? Yep. Don't believe me. Let this guy tell you. (Warning: Viewer is advised to wear special protective visors and tin hats before viewing this video):

Yes. Yes. I see. Riiiiiiiight! Earthquake weapon? Turn Canada into a tropical paradise? No tsunami in other countries? Really? I'm sure those people in Hawaii and Oceania will sure be happy to hear that those increased waves were simply figments on their imaginations. 


Well, anyway. Don't look now, but someone sure has a good imagination... How about staying away from the sake for a few days, eh?


Now, someone asked me a while back why I am hesitant to associate with too many foreigners in Japan....


Anymore questions?