Acknowledging Malicious Ignorance

The international community did not ignore the successors of Fukushima 50, who remained in the nuclear power plant right after the accident to fix the problem. United Nations Science Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation reported that the government of Japan and Tokyo Electric Power Company had underestimated the internal exposure of workers in First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant to radioactive materials. It indicated the estimated impacts on the workers’ body had been 20% smaller than it really had been. The world needs to realize that Japanese bureaucrats do everything on nobody’s watch.

The report of the committee estimated the average whole body exposure of the workers who worked there until October 2012 to be 12mSv. Then it revealed that TEPCO ignored the impact of iodine-133 on workers’ thyroid gland, while the company correctly measured the impact of iodine-131. It concluded that 12 workers who experienced massive exposure on thyroid and about 160 workers with great amount of exposure on their whole body were with increased risk of cancer, though it was hard to reconfirm.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare demanded the employers of those workers to submit results of health examination to collect data for long-tern survey of radioactive-related diseases. However, the employers have not submitted one third of data of all workers, indicating the reluctance of doing that. The ministry is not very serious about collecting as much data as they can.

Working environment in First Fukushima is still dangerous with high risk of exposure to radioactive materials. Although they put on radiation-proof clothes, it is not likely for them to be completely protected. In dealing with leaks of contaminated water from tanks, shower from the hole of a tank fell on some workers. Because the workers are willing to work there in need of high salary, TEPCO and the government of Japan are supposed to be trying to maintain their job opportunity even with deteriorated condition. However, it is their responsibility to keep their workers healthy.

If workers do not complain about it, and no one accuses discretion on health management, TEPCO and Japanese government will keep on ignoring the possible impact on workers. They believe that their responsibility will not be proved, even when diseases have appeared. If no one is watching, they pour contaminated water to the sea, argue that they have finished cleaning up lands of contaminated area, and say Japan has been recovered from the great disaster, even though a number of people are still living in temporary houses. Ignorance kills people in a weaker position.