Protect Children from Radiation

» Protect Children from Radiation

Though experts have divided opinion about impact of radioactivity to the human body, one thing for sure is that children are more vulnerable and will get more serious impact than adults.

After the accident of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, Japanese government has raised the legal public dose limit of radiation exposure for Fukushima prefecture from 1mSV per year to a provisional limit of 20mSV per year, comparable level to “radiation controlled areas” (areas exposed to 0.6 μSV or more per hour). Because of this new standard, big cities such as Fukushima city and Koriyama city were not designated as evacuation zone, but quite a few families escaped immediately after the explosion. However, maximum residents including children chose to stay, because of their economic reason, family reason, etc.

In Fukushima city, a group of mothers and fathers who concerned about the impact of radiation to children gathered and established “Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation (Kodomo [=Children] Fukushima)” on April 25th, 2011 and started their activities from May 1st. The next day of the establishment, Kodomo Fukushima started negotiation with the government for evacuation of children in Fukushima to safer place.

At the same time, “Network for protecting Children in Iwaki” was established by concerned mothers and started the decontamination of the park and school path in order to secure safe living environment for children. We would like to feature the people who are working to protect children from the radiation.