This was provided by Masako's husband, who's a graduate from Tokyo University and majored in Nuclear engineering. He also studied further at MIT in USA. (He also has a PHD.)
He's been having business with Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant for about one year. (The one that's been on the news recently.) He sometimes had visited this Plant to support them.
Here's what masako wrote:
Firstly, "eating seagrass" is effective as you've mentioned in your mail.
"Nori"(black seaweed paper) is ok, but "Wakame" is much better.
Why?
A.1) "Wakame" helps to stick radiation material that was taken inside one's body and to send it out from one's body. For non-Japanese who are not used to eat "Wakame", eating as "salad" may be recommended.
A.2) "Wakame" helps thyroid gland to prevent from having any damage from radiation absorbed.
Let me explain you about "radiation" step by step:
*We daily are exposed to "radiation" from the sun. We also get "radiation" via X-Rays.
*When you travel by airplane to overseas, you will also be exposed to stronger "radiation" compared to when you are on the ground. (About 10-100 times stronger radiation compared to that you'll have on the ground.)
Suppose you are standing at the main gate of current Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.(The plant after the earthquake and the explosion.) Below will be the percentage of how many "radiation" you'll be exposed compared with the place you are standing as mentioned above.
(Main gate & Nuclear Reactor is about 1km apart as f.y.i.)
* If you stay 20km apart from the main gate: "Radiation" level (Bq / Quantity of radiation) will go lower to 1/400 to 1/4000. (It changes upon the "wind".)
* If one stay in Yokohama where is about 300km apart from the main gate of Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (before/after explosion), radiation amount will go down to 1/100000 to 1/20000000 compared to the point mentioned above (main gate of Fukushima Nuclear power plant).
My husband gave me these numbers regarding radiation amount as f.y.i.:
*When one stand on the ground as usual: 2.4mSv / hour
*When one have X-Rays at the doctor's office: 6.9mSv / one X-Ray
*Nuclear power plant sets the rule for those who work inside the plant as follows:
- There'll be no problem in health for the workers in the plant if the plant control the
radiation amount (inside the plant) to 50mSv / year.
- However, usually the plant control the radiation amount to 20mSv / year. (As f.y.i., one will experience sudden damage in health if one will be exposed to radiation amount of 200mSv / year.)
Now let's talk about the radiation amount after earthquake explosion:
*Right before/after (that moment of explosion) explosion:
1.5mSv / hour (the amount in front of the main gate of Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant)
*After the explosion, average number of radiation amount (in front of the main gate of Fukushima Nuclear Power Point): 0.2mSv - 0.4mSv
*If you stay in front of the main gate of F.N.P.P. for 10 hours now, the radiaton amount will be the same as the amount of you'll be getting for 1 year living as normal on the ground.
*If you stay 20km apart from the main gate of FNPP for 6 months, the radiation amount will be the same as when you'll usually have (by living on the ground) for 1 year.
If you stay for 1 year there (20km apart from he main gate), the radiation amount will be the same as what you'll get via one X-Ray.
As conclusion, there is no need to worry (for one's health) if you are staying in Tokyo / Yokohama. Although "melt down" happens, he wouldn't worry. What he worries (if melt down occurs) will be that the land around that area (FNPP) will not be able to use anymore. Any food produced around that area cannot be consumed.
One tip: One could prevent from getting radiation by wearing one piece of clothes.
From Shirley Tamura.
I am a nutrition-epidemiologist, so I can add a few more mechanistic details to the diet part if anyone is interested.
To prevent radiation poisoning, first-response teams often distribute postassium iodine (KI) pills in 130 or 80 mg per doses. There is non-radioactive iodine and radioactive iodine. The body cannot tell the difference. The thyroid gland is one place where dietary iodine is concentrated. To prevent radiation poisoning, the mechanism is simple, a matter of simple displacement. If you eat a lot of foods that contain iodine, it prevents the body from absorbing radioactive iodine, because it is already "full" so to speak. When I saw that the KI pills are only 130 milligrams a dose, I realized that seaweeds contain much higher concentrations of iodine, konbu (the most), wakame, hijiki in particular. The dried nori "laver" does not have a lot of iodine, unfortunately, not in a few pieces. Konbu has 8 times more iodine than the KI pills in 100 grams. It also contains a lot of calcium, a fact that is useful for Asians who are frequently lactose intolerant and need rich food sources of dietary calcium.
Also, there have been many epidemiologic studies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors after WWII. There was evidence that those who had miso soup every day seemed to have less radiation poisoning symptoms. The mechanism here is not as clear, but the inference from these studies is that miso is protective.
This addresses only radioactive iodine, of course. There are other dangerous sources of radiation in these reactors and the gas plume if it every makes it to Tokyo (winds were blowing north this morning), but how this one, radioactive iodine, can incorporate itself into the body and do damage is pretty clear and prevention is also pretty simple. Nothing works 100%, but every little bit helps, I think.
So I have been making dark (personal preference) miso soup with konbu and wakame these past few days. My kids seem to like it, so we will keep it up for a while just in case.
-Shirley
To prevent radiation poisoning, first-response teams often distribute postassium iodine (KI) pills in 130 or 80 mg per doses. There is non-radioactive iodine and radioactive iodine. The body cannot tell the difference. The thyroid gland is one place where dietary iodine is concentrated. To prevent radiation poisoning, the mechanism is simple, a matter of simple displacement. If you eat a lot of foods that contain iodine, it prevents the body from absorbing radioactive iodine, because it is already "full" so to speak. When I saw that the KI pills are only 130 milligrams a dose, I realized that seaweeds contain much higher concentrations of iodine, konbu (the most), wakame, hijiki in particular. The dried nori "laver" does not have a lot of iodine, unfortunately, not in a few pieces. Konbu has 8 times more iodine than the KI pills in 100 grams. It also contains a lot of calcium, a fact that is useful for Asians who are frequently lactose intolerant and need rich food sources of dietary calcium.
Also, there have been many epidemiologic studies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors after WWII. There was evidence that those who had miso soup every day seemed to have less radiation poisoning symptoms. The mechanism here is not as clear, but the inference from these studies is that miso is protective.
This addresses only radioactive iodine, of course. There are other dangerous sources of radiation in these reactors and the gas plume if it every makes it to Tokyo (winds were blowing north this morning), but how this one, radioactive iodine, can incorporate itself into the body and do damage is pretty clear and prevention is also pretty simple. Nothing works 100%, but every little bit helps, I think.
So I have been making dark (personal preference) miso soup with konbu and wakame these past few days. My kids seem to like it, so we will keep it up for a while just in case.
-Shirley
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