This two-day symposium – the first independent conference on this subject and a project of The Helen Caldicott Foundation – will be held at the New York Academy of Medicine on March 11 and 12, 2013, to coincide with the second anniversary of the nuclear melt-down at the Fukushima Daiichi reactors.
Scientists, physicians, engineers, political leaders, and policy makers will present and discuss the preliminary data thus far amassed on the bio-medical and ecological consequences of the disaster both for Japan and, potentially, the rest of the world.
In the year-and-a-half since the disaster, reports have slowly emerged about the health and environmental effects — from increased incidences of thyroid abnormalities in Japanese children to deformities in the insect, bird, and butterfly populations around Fukushima to increased levels of cesium present in tuna caught off the coast of California. It is clear that much research by the world’s scientists still needs to be done, work which will take years, if not decades, to complete as the effects of radiation exposure on human –as well as flora and fauna –populations make themselves manifest. It is equally clear that an open forum such as this symposium will play an influential role in pointing the way forward in the evaluation of both the immediate and on-going effects of the melt-down.
It will play a vital role in educating the media and stimulating debate among policy makers and government leaders in the world community on whether nuclear power can continue to be considered a viable means of energy production given the global public health implications of its use and the consequences that ensue when catastrophic incidents such as Fukushima occur.
Symposium: The Medical and Ecological Consequences of Fukushima, March 11-12, 2013
Nuclear Free Planet
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