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It is known that life expectancy in Japan is the highest in the world: in 2009 it was 82.12 years, - and that Japan also has a low rate of infant mortality. Less well known are the reasons for this phenomenon, explaining in particular how the Japanese managed to achieve such high life expectancy, taking into account the fact that in their history Hiroshima took place.
Experts believe that this is due to the Japanese style of food, in which the principal place in their menu belongs to herbal products rich in antioxidants, and seafood containing iodine and unsaturated fatty acids Omega-3.
Japan also ranks first in the world for use supplements - these are the same natural antioxidants and essential nutrients for life, only in concentrated form. Nation healing program, launched by the Japanese government after Hiroshima, included the opening of large-scale production of dietary supplements with active natural substances. As a result, according to published data, currently in Japan, 90% of the population use supplements.
How right those who link the Japanese phenomenon of longevity with the use of dietary supplements, we will all have an opportunity to assess over the next 10 years, when long-term consequences of the accident at nuclear power plant "Fukushima-1" show up. Fukushima, of course, is not Hiroshima, but by the scientists, in Japan, due to radioactive emissions from the reactor, it is expected an unprecedented surge in cancer.
Experts estimate that people who live within 100 km from the plant, the deadly disease will hit about 200 thousand. And among seven million living within a radius of 100 to 200 km another 220 thousand cases projected. Total half million of the 128 million people in Japan - that is just the direct consequences of the accident, which will appear in the next year or two. Long-term effects of radiation exposure are associated with an increased number of somatic diseases, which damage the functionality of the body and reduce life expectancy.
However, we are also not able to stay outside observers, as the situation on the "Fukushima", according to scientists and observers, reminds Chernobyl. Even so the Japanese government did not recognize this. However, leakages from the reactor contaminate the ocean, not to mention the dumping of 10 tones of radioactive water in April.
To date, it was dumped in the ocean also 11 500 tones of low-active water, to make free tanks for water of very high radiation levels. As a result, natural background radiation of the Pacific water near the coast of Japan is now repeatedly exceeded.
It's hard to say as far as it will endanger the health of people, and how fast the ocean can be cleansed. But since virtually all radioactive contamination thrown into the atmosphere, will be sooner or later in the ocean (either from radioactive trace, or from river removals), the contamination of seafood, I think most of all can affect the health of all humanity.
According to Vladimir Rakov, Doctor of Biological Sciences of the Pacific Oceanological Institute of RAS, the traces of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still found by scientists in mollusk shells, caught almost anywhere in the World Ocean. As well as of Pacific nuclear testing in the 50-60s of the last century. So we can not escape from long-term consequences of the Fukushima.
There is also question the spread of the decay products through the atmosphere. There is an interesting map on http://www.metronews.ru/japan/map3/ that shows the spread of radiation from 23 to 29 March. On this map you can see how the radioactive plume is carried away into the ocean, and experts estimate that only a corner of the cloud will hook the United States. So the WHO said that contamination do not threatens to other countries.
But life constantly brings about changes. First, the fact that wind tends to change its direction, and secondly, the aftershocks and the fact that the fire in the reactor was extinguished with sea water, which evaporation also fell into the atmosphere. As a result, the situation was changing unpredictable as well as the direction of movement of radioactive clouds.
April 2, a radioactive cloud covered already almost the entire territory of the United States; moreover, western states have got most strongly. April 8, in China, small amounts of the radioactive isotope iodine-131 have been found in the spinach leaves. Then there were reports from Sweden and Iceland, and impressionable Italians rushed to buy up iodine-containing drugs in pharmacies. And so on, up to predictions about Turkey.
Now the situation appears to have stabilized - at least after April 15, the risk of radioactive pollution has ceased to be discussed on the Internet resources. The more that the governments of several European countries have tried to reassure their people, assuring them that the radioactive cloud does not contain harmful amounts of radioactive substances.
And, of course, the way it is. If you do not remember the straw that break the camel's back. With regard to radioactive iodine, its half-life is of 8 days, that is, if you live on the opposite side of the globe, you can practically do not be afraid.
But, apart from iodine-131, in case of accidents at nuclear power plants and atomic explosions, also radioactive isotopes of cesium-137 and strontium-90 always stand out. These substances can contaminate ground in the long term (28-33 years). And it turns out that the Japanese isotopes are added to the Chernobyl isotopes that have still not decayed.
And who does guaranteed that one year there will not bang somewhere else? Because if today there are about 440 nuclear power plants in the world, then, as predicted by the IAEA, by 2030 there will be more than 600. And as the hysteria around the Fukushima pass, construction of nuclear plants will continue.
In China, where earthquakes occur rather frequently, there are already 13 operating nuclear power plants and another 25 are under construction. In India, the world's largest NPP of 9900 MW is in building, and also in a seismic zone; Turkey plans to build a nuclear power plant in Akkuyu, 25 km from the earthquake zone. Also in Iran, Hungary, Armenia, and on the West Coast of USA, there are nuclear power stations, located in hazardous areas.
Unfortunately, this is a characteristic feature of the NPP - their attachment to the seismic zones, and we will no getting from this anywhere. The fact is that it is required whole oceans of water to cool the reactors, so nuclear power plants located far from the sea, causing serious damage to local freshwater resources, which means to plants and fish. For this reason, in countries with have access to the sea, they trying to find suitable sites for nuclear power plants on the coast.
However, what are the ocean coasts and even inland seas, nor the boundaries of tectonic faults, where, as a rule, areas of high seismicity and volcanic activity are concentrated? Hence it is the increased risk of earthquakes and tsunamis for nuclear power plants.
You can believe or not in the coming end of the world in 2012, but at least some kind of cataclysms associated with solar flares are predicted fairly accurately. Including the increased seismic activity.
I do not know what steps to take at this time Japanese government, but at least past Japan's experience suggests that we should do to protect ourselves from the consequences of both an accomplished and possible future nuclear disasters: take antioxidants and prevent deficiency of minerals including iodine deficiency. And not only at the expense of seafood, which themselves may contain increased amounts of radionuclides.
Warning: Do not get me wrong - I do not forbid you to eat sea fish. Otherwise, I should advocate also against any other natural products as environmentally absolutely clean areas on the Earth no longer exists. But it should be taken together with the poison also the antidote - the same supplements in which the concentration of useful nutrients greatly exceeds the proportion of unavoidable impurities.
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