WSJ: “An eerie quietness” in Fukushima says top biologist — Bird population dropped twice as much as after Chernobyl — “Disturbing development”

Saturday, March 10, 2012
By Paul Martin

By ENENew.com
March 10th, 2012

Title: In Japan, Relief at Radiation’s Low Toll
Source: Wall Street Journal
Author: YUKA HAYASHI, PHRED DVORAK and ROBERT LEE HOTZ
Date: March 9, 2012
[…] Those studying the accident warn, however, that the early, reassuring conclusions may understate the extent of exposure for certain people. They add that scientists still know very little about the effect on the human body of extended exposure to low-level radiation. There also have been some disturbing developments—a reduction in the bird population near the plant, high levels of radiation in local fish—that biologists say they will continue to watch.
“The most important thing is to monitor everyone’s health carefully over the longer term,” said Shunichi Yamashita, vice president at Fukushima Medical University and a longtime researcher on the impact of radiation on human health. […]

Ecologists and biologists who toured Fukushima prefecture earlier this year found that the radiation release appeared to have had a dramatic impact on birds in the region. Biologists led by radio-ecologist Timothy Mousseau at the University of South Carolina studied 300 locations around Fukushima last July and found that local bird populations had dropped by about a third. “The response was about twice as much as after Chernobyl,” said Dr. Mousseau. “We don’t know why yet.”

Their absence was noticeable. “It is an eerie quietness,” he said. “The environment is just quieter.”

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