Chris McCarthy chris@stars.sfsu.

edu Dear NPR, Your coverage of the radiation releases by the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster was inadequate and slanted. Your so-called expert was either woefully uninformed or simply lying when he claimed that there were no health effects among residents an plant workers from the radiation released into the environment by the multiple meltdowns. You should at least have presented a nuclear expert with a different option, and also fact-checked the claims your "expert" made. As reported in the press, the known health effects of radiation include: 1.) Two workers hospitalized with serious radiation burns http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20110326x1.html 2.) An estimated 1,000 deaths due to cancer caused by radiation. This estimate, by nuclear expert Frank von Hippel, was based on early reports of radiation release. TEPCO and independent observers now admit real radiation release was much higher than their initial estimate. http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/4764/fukushima-cancer-toll-one-tenth-chernobyl 3.) More than 100,000 cases of non-lethal cancer according to early (low) estimates of radiation release, using the standard models of the European Committee on Radiation risk:

http://fairewinds.com/content/health-outcome-fukushima-catastrophe-initial-analysis-risk-modeleuropean-committee-radiatio 4.) Potentially numerous unreported injuries. As this CNN report indicates, people who have health effects from Fukushima will probably not go public with them: http://edition.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c3#/video/world/2012/03/08/pkg-lah-japan-nuclearworkers.cnn Nor will TEPCO or the Japanese Government report the health effects on workers, per their policy designed to protect worker's medical privacy. In fact the head of TEPCO fell so ill that he disappeared for days and then resigned...for reasons that have still not been disclosed. So a correct description of the situation is: "Some Fukushima workers have had confirmed health effects, and many others may have unreported health effects. While reported health effect among the general population are minimal, thousands are likely to develop cancer due to the radiation, some presumably small fraction of which will be fatal. Regards,

Chris McCarthy Adjunct Professor of Physics & Astronomy San Francisco State University. city : San Francisco state : CA iwantto : Contact a Show nprstation : KQED subject : Fukushima Radiation Story country : United States zipcode : 94132 ---Nathan House houselmbr@yahoo.com This is why I no longer support PBS. This mornings story on " the harm that cigarettes do to the workers at Fukushima is worse than the radiation exposure" is at its worst bad journalism. I have been following alternative media, Fukushima Diary and Enenews. Just to name two. The people of Japan are in Real Trouble and you have a fluff piece like this. I want the old NPR of the 70's, real journalistic prowess, not more corporate shilling. Shame on Morning Addition. city : Newman state : IL iwantto : Contact a Show nprstation : WILL subject : Richard Harris this morning bad journalism country : United States ----Erik Planter nollaraf@gmail.com Not "one of the worst..." nuclear disasters, but by far THE worst. Ever. At least one (probably three) total core melt-throughs took place! And the spent fuel pool above reactor 4 is on the knife edge of structural failure. Also, the situation is far from "stable". The core(s) are likely in the ground (not in the reactor vessels) and CONTINUING to spew massive amounts of radiation into the biosphere. Steaming ground fissures around the plant have been reported by eye witnesses (but remain unreported by any main stream "news" organizations) indicating that melted core(s) are underground, reacting with ground water and/or cooling water being pumped in. I doubt this type of information will ever see the light of day, even if to debunk it, because the questions it would raise threaten the nuclear industry to the core, and this industry seems to wield an inordinate amount of power over the free flow of the truth. city : Palo Alto state : CA iwantto : Submit a Correction

nprstation : subject : Fukushima 1 year anniversary country : United States zipcode : 94304 --Joy LaClaire forthrightradio@gmail.com Shame on you for your coverage of the health outcome of the nuclear disaster at the TEPCO Fukushima nuclear reactors. Your downplaying of the problems, and in fact assurances that there are few or none is unconscionable. The period of time before the earliest cancers will appear is just beginning, i.e. 1 -3 years for leukemia, and longer for the other cancers, which will undoubtedly result. You should find scientists and epidemiologists, who are knowledgeable about what is really going on, and not be so bent on promoting nuclear energy as "safe and clean", which it is neither. And this is an ongoing danger, although your coverage made it sound like it was over. I am not sure if I heard this on Morning Edition or All Things Considered, or both. city : Boulder state : CO iwantto : Submit a Correction nprstation : KCFR subject : country : United States --Gina K Mills Mills gina.k.mills@gmail.com Release of any food with excessive radiation was prohibited They prohibited the release of any food that had had increased levels of radiation in them, (Boice Statement) This was aired on March 9, 2012. In fact, the Japanese government failed to keep radiation-contaminated food out of the marketplace. Bloomberg Business News reported that officials failed to ban cattle shipments from Fukushima until July 19after some beef from the area had been shipped to shipped to supermarkets. At that time, the government reported finding beef with as much 2,300 becquerels of cesium a kilogram, well over the governments limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram. Rice contaminated with cesium also made it into the marketplace, and inspectors in Singapore detected radiation nine times the limit in cabbages imported from Japan (Reuters). Spinach, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tea, milk, plums and fish have been found contaminated with cesium and iodine as far as 360 kilometers from Dai-Ichi (Bloomberg). Those, surely, were just the tip of the iceberg because

Japan had no central system for checking food for radioactive contamination. It left that task to farmers and local officialson a voluntary basis. NPR did the public a real bad failure in journalism. NPR listeners are smart and you can't do a sloppy story, Ok ? city : Dallas state : TX iwantto : Submit a Correction nprstation : subject : Story from Richard Harris was very flawed about Japan. Surprised NPR would publish it ~ Disappointed in the NPR Staff country : United States zipcode : 75240