[Vision2020] Radioactive Reagan: Tokyo's Newest Emissions Not Rosy

[Kenneth Marcy]

27 February 2014

SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan --- Congress has instructed the Defense 
Department to launch an inquiry into potential health impacts on Navy 
first-responders from Japan's March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear 
disaster.

The request, made in the explanatory statement from the House that 
accompanied the fiscal 2014 budget bill that passed Congress this month, 
comes as a growing number of sailors and Marines have joined a lawsuit 
against Tokyo Electric Power Co 
<http://www.stripes.com/search-7.269?q=Tokyo+Electric+Power+Co.&x=0&y=0>.

http://www.stripes.com/congress-wants-answers-on-health-impacts-of-japan-disaster-relief-1.263843


The above story is an update of another one filed a couple of months ago:

http://ecowatch.com/2013/12/27/ronald-reagan-cancer-sue-tepco-fukushima-radiation/ 




27 December 2013

70+ USS Ronald Reagan Crew Members, Half Suffering From Cancer, to Sue 
TEPCO For Fukushima Radiation Poisoning

Brandon Baker <http://ecowatch.com/author/brandon-baker/> | December 27, 
2013

After U.S. Navy sailors on the USS Ronald Reagan responded to the 2011 
Fukushima disaster 
<http://ecowatch.com/2013/10/29/robert-stone-must-now-film-fukushima/> 
in Japan for four days, many returned to the U.S. with thyroid cancer, 
Leukemia, brain tumors and more.

At least 71 sailors---many in their 20s---reported radiation sickness 
and will file a lawsuit against Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which 
operates the Fukushima Daiichi energy plant.

The men and women accuse TEPCO of downplaying the danger of nuclear 
radiation on the site. The water contaminated the ship's supply, which 
led to crew members drinking, washing their bodies and brushing their 
teeth with contaminated water. Paul Garner, an attorney representing 51 
sailors, said at least half of the 70-plus sailors have some form of cancer.

"We're seeing leukemia, testicular cancer and unremitting gynecological 
bleeding requiring transfusions and other intervention," Garner told 
/New York Post 
<http://nypost.com/2013/12/22/70-navy-sailors-left-sickened-by-radiation-after-japan-rescue/>./

Senior Chief Michael Sebourn, a radiation-decontamination officer 
assigned to test the aircraft carrier, said that radiation levels 
measured 300 times higher than what was considered safe at one point. 
Meanwhile sailors like Lindsay Cooper have contrasted their initial and 
subsequent feelings upon seeing and tasting metallic "radioactive 
snow" caused by freezing Pacific air that mixed with radioactive debris.

"We joked about it: 'Hey, it's radioactive snow!" Cooper said. "My 
thyroid is so out of whack that I can lose 60 to 70 pounds in one month 
and then gain it back the next. My menstrual cycle lasts for six months 
at a time, and I cannot get pregnant.

"It's ruined me."

Cooper said the Reagan has a multimillion-dollar radiation-detection 
system, but the crew couldn't get it activated quickly enough.

"And then we couldn't go anywhere," she said. "Japan didn't want us in 
port, Korea didn't want us, Guam turned us away. We floated in the water 
for two and a half months."

San Diego Judge Janis L. Sammartino dismissed the initial suit in late 
November, but Garner and a group of attorneys plan to refile on Jan. 6, 
according to Fox 5 San Diego 
<http://fox5sandiego.com/2013/12/19/us-sailors-claim-radiation-sickness-from-fukushima-rescue/#axzz2oh9ipuxz>.

Though publications like /The Washington Times 
<http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/freedom-press-not-free/2013/dec/24/did-nsa-conceal-fukushima-meltdown-military-sent-a/> 
/have wondered if the Navy and/or National Security Agency might have 
known about the conditions the sailors were heading into two years ago, 
Garner and the attorneys say the lawsuit is solely directed at TEPCO.

"We're suing this foreign corporation because they are doing business in 
America," co-counsel Charles Bonner. "Their second largest office 
outside of Tokyo is in Washington, D.C."


Ken


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