Major Japan Newspaper: Mutations in nearly every fir tree by Fukushima plant
- Insects with missing legs or crooked
- Abnormalities also
found in monkeys, fish and frogs
Asahi
Shimbun,
Dec 22, 2015 (emphasis added): More
than 90 percent of the fir trees in
forests close to the site of Japan’s 2011 nuclear disaster are
showing signs of abnormality,
and plant
lice specimens collected
in a town more than 30 kilometers from the crippled facilityare
missing legs or crooked.
But it remains unclear whether the mutations in plants and animals
are definitively connected to the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1
nuclear power plant. All that scientists in Japan are prepared to say
is they are trying to figure out the effects of radioactive cesium
caused by the release of huge amounts of radioactive materials from
the triple meltdown at the Fukushima plant… Scientists are seeking…
signs of mutation in plants and animals in areas close to the
stricken nuclear plant…
Scientists have reported onmutations
and abnormalities among species varying
from fir
trees and plant lice to Japanese monkeys, carp and frogs.
The National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS), a
government-affiliated entity, said in late August that the trunks
of fir trees are not growing vertically.
Fir trees are among the 44 species that the Environment Ministry
asked the NIRS and other research organizations to study in trying to
determine the effects of radiation on living creatures. The NIRS
reported that the frequency
of these mutations corresponds to a rise in natural
background radiation. More
than 90 percent of fir trees in
the town of Okuma, just 3.5 kilometers from the crippled
plant, showed
signs of abnormal growth…
Among other changes reported: the legs
of plant lice collected
in Kawamata, a town more
than 30 km from the plant,
were found to be missing
or crooked and
the white blood cell count of Japanese monkeys was lower in
Fukushima, the prefectural capital, which is about 60 km from the
plant…
There is also a possibility that some animals, even if they
exhibited signs of radiation’s effect, may no longer be alive for
analysis.
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