Please sign this new EMERGENCY petition to roll back reckless radiation limits and protect hundreds of thousands of Japanese children from a lifetime of cancer fear.

Japan's people desperately need help for common sense to prevail so their children are safe from radiation exposure. Thank you for taking the time to show your support. After you sign the petition, you will receive a confirmation email. To complete your action, click the link in the email to confirm your signature.

We the undersigned ask you to join us in signing our petition, which will be presented to the Japanese Government


The Second Nuclear Emergency in Japan

The Fukushima disaster has rocked the entire nation of Japan. Unable to guarantee public safety after the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, Japan's bureaucracy has suddenly announced that children can now be exposed to six times as much radiation as adult reactor workers. Sign this EMERGENCY petition to roll back these reckless radiation limits and protect hundreds of thousands of Japanese children from a lifetime of cancer fear.

This is not just about Japan. What happens in Japan can set a dangerous precedent abroad.

THE FACTS | On April 19, Japan's central government informed Fukushima's school authorities that children could be exposed to 20 times the radiation previously deemed safe for children - levels six times higher than Japanese workers are legally allowed to suffer.

There is no scientific justification for this change. In meetings with the government, no bureaucrat would admit responsibility for raising the radiation exposure level for children. None could explain what the new limit was based upon. Nobody would correct the problem. Disarray in Japan's bureaucracy cannot be allowed to put an entire generation in danger.

WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN | Children are more vulnerable to radiation than adults. Leading independent nuclear monitors in Japan demand that radiation limits for children be rolled back from what is suspected to be an "expedient" level advised by the nuclear industry (20 mSv per year) to the level previously established as safe for children (1 mSv per year).

If the bureaucrats in Tokyo do not roll back the radiation limits, children within 80 kilometers of the stricken Fukushima nuclear reactors will be deliberately exposed to radiation levels that boost their risk of cancer for decades to come.

OUR PETITION | We ask the government of Japan to take these action, beginning immediately:

1. Withdraw the 20 mSv per year radiation standard issued April 19, 2011 for children and restore the 1 mSv per year dose limit for children.

2. Minimize children's radiation exposure. Increase support for municipal agencies and civil society groups aiding Japan's thousands of radiation refugees and undertaking urgent decontamination efforts.

3. In setting radiation exposure limits, take into account "internal" radiation exposure from contaminated food, dust and other sources.

4. To protect children, maintain official radiation monitoring after outdoor contamination falls below 3.8 mSv per hour, a radiation level still 6 times what triggers a "radiation-controlled" working condition.

To people outside Japan, these demands will sound like mere commonsense. But given the stress and influences on the Japanese government, our people desperately need help for commonsense to prevail and for our children to be protected. Changing public policy in Japan will have the most far-reaching results. We thank you for your understanding and support.

Sign the petition
https://fukushima.greenaction-japan.com/archives/41

This petition is being organized by:
Green Action, Greenpeace Japan, Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, Citizens Against Fukushima Aging Nuclear Power Plants (Fukuro-no-Kai), Osaka Citizens Against the Mihama, Oi, and Takahama Nuclear Power Plants (Mihama-no-Kai), Friends of the Earth Japan


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