2.46 It's about time...

Fukushima city is giving radiation dosimeters to children aged 4 to 15 to measure the amount of radiation they are exposed to. (read more here) The government keep insisting that the area is within safe limits but since they have hiked the 'safe' limit level. Another things that has come to light recently is the labelling of food products on one of the message boards that I read the women closer to the Fukushima plant were complaining that suddenly they can only get fresh produce that is produced in the affected areas, others, who live further away were saying that their supermarkets are now labelling where all the fresh produce comes from so the consumer can choose what to buy. Our local supermarket has a section which is all local farmers goods and I tend to buy from there first, I just hope we are far enough away for the radiation not to affect our food, but how do we know for sure?

If you are interested in seeing what the current readings are you can check this page

There is also Safecast who are providing volunteers with geiger counters so that they can take and log readings in the affected regions. You can follow Ryan, Will and Naoki's bike tour around Motegi here.

And you can also read EX-SKF's blog which is bilingual, he (I assume) is posting about all the info he finds in Japanese and English news media.

Yasuyo came to visit last week, she had been working in Germany with victims of the Tohoku disaster and she said that the majority of the people were families with young children. Their problem was that they fell between the gaps as it were. They don't live close enough to the reactor to be classed as victims of the power plant and they were far enough from the tsunami not to have serious damage which means that they were not able to get a certificate from the government so that they can relocate. The reason most of they gave for wanting to move was the worry over the nuclear reactor. Yasuyo told me that when she met these families off the plane, most of them collapsed with relief. Some had come from communities that believed everything the government says and so told them that they were over reacting others made the decision to leave against the will of the rest of the family. As a mother or father, you want to take the best care of your children but in these circumstances it is so difficult to know whether what you are doing is for the best.

And a quick thank you to Madi, Kim, Dave, Vicky and Kathryn for posting articles that they find on to FB, it makes putting these round ups together so much easier! As always if you have anything to add please pop it in the comments section. Cheers