Japan Cities Certify 573 Nuclear-Related Deaths Around Fukushima

Fukushima NukeBlog Site Map

I had written before that if you count people who died indirectly from the effects of the nuclear incident and not just direct radiation deaths, you'd come up with more than a few dozen Chernobyl deaths in the first year.

Now at least the local governments have backed me up, and these don't even include the likely hundreds if not thousands who committed suicide as their businesses were either destroyed o ceased to have a market

• gravel and concrete
• sewage
• schools and daycare
• farms
• tea
• dairy
• beef
• cheese
• fisheries
• forestry
• bakery

from Nancy Foust's http://www.simplyinfo.org/?p=4830

573 Deaths Attributed To Nuclear Disaster In Japan

February 5th, 2012 

The local municipalities have certified 573 deaths as attributed to the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. More cases are pending. These deaths were situations where the fatigue or impact on chronic conditions caused by the accident contributed significantly to the person’s death. These are the first deaths to be recognized as part of the nuclear disaster and a harsh reminder how difficult the early weeks of the disaster were.

This report from March 18th cites many elderly or infirm patients left in a hospital 6 miles from the nuclear plant. In the chaos a lack of transportation and other resources caused the medical staff to leave these patients behind, others were evacuated. Those left behind had fragile health or were in a coma. The SDF later attempted to rescue the patients but many of the most ill evacuees died. Many in shelters lacked heat, power or food as responders struggled to locate survivors and distribute aid.  Currently no details are available of those 573 deaths how many were people who sheltered in place or other details on their deaths.