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This is not even remotely true. The harm caused to people who evacuated was finding a new supermarket in the (nearby) town they moved to versus significantly h

by xigency 11y ago

This is not even remotely true. The harm caused to people who evacuated was finding a new supermarket in the (nearby) town they moved to versus significantly higher risks of cancer if they had stayed. Think of a 10x increase in rates of Thyroid cancer. This might cause one or two deaths over a decade depending on the sparseness of population, but we are talking about people's lives. In terms of insurance, the region was known for some rare produce, saké, and tourism, but I think well-being should be the primary concern.

TeMPOraL 11y ago
Evacuation is never about "just" finding a new supermarket. For starters, it means total destruction of the economy of the evacuated area (= livelihood of its people), as well as a serious disruption to the area receiving evacuees. Then, the process of evacuation (and subsequent mess at the destination) increases chances of various accidents that can cause death or serious injury, and quite likely increases crime as well. Finally, at any given time in any area that's larger than a village there are people undergoing emergency medical care or who otherwise can't leave the hospital - massive evacuation will likely kill those (not to mention the strain on medical care resources the receiving area will experience). Evacuations are serious business and are not clean and harmless.
- xigency 11y ago
  It seems you are right about hospital evacuations. From 2012, "A hospital [Futaba Hospital] near the disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant made no mistakes during a hasty evacuation in March 2011 during which 40 patients and nursing home residents lost their lives, according to a report released on Sept. 30 by investigators commissioned by the hospital." Unfortunately, that hospital is within 3km of the reactor and was evacuated between March 12th and March 16th. It's also worth noting that the radiation level on the day of the disaster, March 11, was 1,590 uSv/hr at a point 5km away (normal background radiation for a city is 0.25 uSv/hr). This is, per hour, more radiation than background exposure for a year in most cities. Fukushima Prefecture is the third largest prefecture in Japan, and most of its largest cities emerged from the disaster with minor earthquake damage. Also, luckily, the area around the reactor is made up of small towns and villages, so I would like to believe the community's support has aided most of the refugees, but obviously it was a hardship.

by xigency 11y ago

TeMPOraL 11y ago

Evacuation is never about "just" finding a new supermarket. For starters, it means total destruction of the economy of the evacuated area (= livelihood of its people), as well as a serious disruption to the area receiving evacuees. Then, the process of evacuation (and subsequent mess at the destination) increases chances of various accidents that can cause death or serious injury, and quite likely increases crime as well. Finally, at any given time in any area that's larger than a village there are people undergoing emergency medical care or who otherwise can't leave the hospital - massive evacuation will likely kill those (not to mention the strain on medical care resources the receiving area will experience). Evacuations are serious business and are not clean and harmless.

xigency 11y ago
It seems you are right about hospital evacuations. From 2012, "A hospital [Futaba Hospital] near the disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant made no mistakes during a hasty evacuation in March 2011 during which 40 patients and nursing home residents lost their lives, according to a report released on Sept. 30 by investigators commissioned by the hospital." Unfortunately, that hospital is within 3km of the reactor and was evacuated between March 12th and March 16th. It's also worth noting that the radiation level on the day of the disaster, March 11, was 1,590 uSv/hr at a point 5km away (normal background radiation for a city is 0.25 uSv/hr). This is, per hour, more radiation than background exposure for a year in most cities. Fukushima Prefecture is the third largest prefecture in Japan, and most of its largest cities emerged from the disaster with minor earthquake damage. Also, luckily, the area around the reactor is made up of small towns and villages, so I would like to believe the community's support has aided most of the refugees, but obviously it was a hardship.