Fukushima disaster worker says subcontractors siphoned money from wages. The Mainichi http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120728p2a00m0na017000c.html
Majia here: This is yet another gross injustice against people who deserve to be treated as heroes:
Workers at the critical Fukushima plant have been treated as disposable. Many workers claimed they were not told they would
be working at the plant when hired. They did not receive dosimeters to monitor
their radiation exposure during the early weeks of the crisis.[i]
The command center used by workers during cleanup was subsequently revealed to
be contaminated, potentially causing thousands of workers to ingest radioactive
particles. Testing of workers found hundreds were contaminated. A worker waded
into radioactive water and was burned because he was not wearing appropriate
protection. Workers were not required to wear waterproof ponchos when it
rained, although rainwater is known to wash out radioactive contamination in
the air.
Ilya Perlingieri described these workers as
expendable in her essay “No Protection for Fukushima’s Expendable Citizens or Us”:
On March 14, the Japanese industry of Health
and Labor raised "the maximum [radiation] dose for workers to
250 mSv [milli Sieverts] a year" an increase in exposure
from the previous 100 mSv.(7) These new figures are also drastically
higher than those from the International Commission on Radiological
Protection's guidelines stipulating a maximum of 20 mSv a year."[ii]
Workers at Fukushima’s devastated plant are clearly regarded as
disposable, as are all of the Japanese citizens located within the contaminated
zones. It was not therefore surprising when the Japanese news agency Mainichi reported on June 22 that the
whereabouts of 30 Fukushima plant workers were unknown: "The
workers' names were listed in records showing that they had been loaned dosimeters,
but when the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), contacted the
companies they were associated with, the companies replied that there was no
record of those workers.[iii]
By August, TEPCO was reporting that the whereabouts of 143 workers was unknown.[iv]
Tepco also reported in August that a 40 year old worker died of acute leukemia
after working at the plant for seven days.[v] .[vi]
In July of 2012, it was revealed that a subcontractor at the Fukushima plant
had required workers to blanket their personal radiation detection devices in
lead in a fraudulent effort to keep their radiation exposure under the safety
threshold.[vii]
[i] Phred
Dvorak “Japanese Nuclear Cleanup Workers Detail Lax Safety Practices at Plant,”
The Wall Street Journal (2011, June
14): A1, A12.
[ii] Ilya Perlingieri “No Protection For Fukushima's 'Expendable'
Citizens Or Us,” Jeff Rense (2011, May 4): http://www.rense.com/general94/noprot.htm.
[iii] "Whereabouts of 30 Nuclear Power Plant
Subcontractors Unknown: Health Ministry" Mainichi (2011, June 21): http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110621p2a00m0na005000c.html.
[iv] “TEPCO Says It Has Lost Contact with 143 Nuclear
Plant Workers,” Japan Today (2011, August 10): http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/tepco-says-it-has-lost-contact-with-143-nuclear-plant-workers.
[v] Obe
Mitsuru. Japan Finds Radiation Spread Over a Wide Area. The Wall Street Journal
2012 August 31, A11.
[vi] Obe
Mitsuru. Japan Finds Radiation Spread Over a Wide Area. The Wall Street Journal
2012 August 31, A11.
[vii] Reuters.
Japan probes under-reporting of Fukushima radiation dosage. The Washington Post
(2012, July 21),
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/japan-probes-under-reporting-of-fukushima-radiation-dosage/2012/07/21/gJQAdgJw0W_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/japan-probes-under-reporting-of-fukushima-radiation-dosage/2012/07/21/gJQAdgJw0W_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines.
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