http://www.vancouverobserver.com/politics/news/2011/04/05/japanese-government-not-giving-straight-story-dumping-radioactive-waterJapanese government not giving "straight story" on dumping radioactive water into ocean, physician says
Jenny Uechi Posted: Apr 5th, 2011
“We’re not getting the straight story from the government,” Jeff Patterson, past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, said about Japan's dumping of radioactive water from a quake-damaged nuclear power plant into the ocean.
TEPCO, the operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, said it began releasing radioactive water into the sea Monday evening so that it could make room in storage tanks for even more severely contaminated water. It plans to release around 11,500 tons of radioactive water into the sea over five days.
Japan's Nikkei News reported on Monday that Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano called the decision "unavoidable based on the options available." Although the released water had radioactive iodine 131 that was over 100 times the legal limit for release in seawater, the Ministry of Health assured that the water posed "no immediate threat to public health."
Patterson, however, said that the government has likely been downplaying the risks of the radioactive water. "When you hear there's no harm to human health, that's just absurd, because there is no safe dose of radiation," he said.