Abolish Nuclear Plants Immediately ~ Facing The Tragedy of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Disaster ~

Abolish Nuclear Plants Immediately
~Facing The Tragedy of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Disaster~

To all residents in Japan,

              The accident in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant triggered by the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake contaminated the ocean and land by radiation, and tragically disrupted the daily life of an enormous number of people. Even now, almost one hundred thousand people are evacuated from the neighboring area of the nuclear plant, and numerous people are forced to live in fear and anxiety.
              With regard to the pros and cons of nuclear plants, we, Japanese bishops, expressed in our message “Reverence for Life –A Message for the Twenty-First Century from the Catholic Bishops of Japan” as follows:
              “It has provided a totally new source of energy for humanity, but as we can see in the destruction of human life in a moment in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the disaster at Chernobyl and the life-threatening criticality accident at Tokaimura, it also has the potential to pass huge problems on to future generations. To use it effectively, we need the wisdom to know our limits and exercise the greatest care. In order to avoid tragedy, we must develop safe alternative means of producing energy.”(1)
              The “tragedy” in this message was brought about by nothing less than the accident in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant. This nuclear disaster wiped out the “safety myth”, which was created because people put too much trust in science and technology without having “the wisdom to know our limits”.
              In the message “Reverence for Life”, we, Japanese bishops could not go so far as to urge the immediate abolishment of nuclear plants. However, after facing the tragic nuclear disaster in Fukushima, we regretted and reconsidered such attitude. And now, we would like to call for the immediate abolishment of all the power plants in Japan.
              With regard to the immediate abolishment of nuclear plants, some people voice concerns about energy shortage. There are also various challenges such as the reduction of carbon dioxide. However, most important of all, we as members of the human race, have responsibilities to protect all life and nature as God’s creation, and to pass on a safer and more secure environment to future generations. In order to protect life, which is so precious, and beautiful nature, we must not focus on economic growth by placing priority on profitability and efficiency, but decide at once to abolish nuclear plants.
              Because of the prediction that a new disaster will occur due to another earthquake or tsunami, all the 54 nuclear plants in Japan are at risk of horrific accidents like the latest one. Therefore, in order to prevent human-generated calamities associated with natural disasters as much as possible, it is essential to eliminate nuclear plants.
              Although nuclear plants have been supplying energy in the context of “peaceful use” to society until now, they have also released an enormous amount of radioactive waste such as plutonium. We are going to place the custodial responsibility of these dangerous wastes on future generations for centuries to come. We must consider this matter to be an ethical issue.
              Nuclear power has been encouraged by national policies up to now. As a result, natural energy has fallen behind in development and popularity. We urge that the national policies be changed to place top priority on development and implementation of natural energy, which will also contribute to reducing carbon dioxide. On the other hand, it takes a long time and enormous labor to decommission a nuclear plant. Therefore, the decommissioning of reactors and the disposal of radioactive waste must be conducted with extreme caution.
              Indeed, electricity is essential for our lives today. However, what is important is to amend our ways of general life by changing the lifestyles that excessively depend on electricity.
              Japan has its culture, wisdom and tradition that have long co-existed with nature. Religions such as Shinto and Buddhism are also based on the same spirit. Christianity has the spirit of poverty as well. Therefore, Christians have an obligation to bear genuine witness to the Gospel especially through the ways of life expected by God; “simplicity of life, the spirit of prayer, charity towards all, especially towards the lowly and the poor, obedience and humility, detachment and self-sacrifice”. (2) We should choose anew a simple and plain lifestyle based on the spirit of the Gospel (3), in cases like saving electricity. We live in the hope that science and technology will develop and advance based on the same spirit. These attitudes will surely lead to a safer and more secure life without nuclear plants.

From Sendai
November 8, 2011
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan

1. Reverence for Life –A Message for the Twenty-First Century from the Catholic Bishops of Japan (Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan, 2001, p.104~p.105).
   Another message on nuclear plants announced by the Catholic Church in Japan is “Petition on the Criticality Accident at the Uranium Conversion Facility, JCO Co. Ltd” (1999). 
2. Pope Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, 76(1975).
3. Cf. Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 486 d. New lifestyles (2004).

http://www.cbcj.catholic.jp/eng/edoc/111108.htm

Health Warning: Can a Cell Phone Carried Regularly in Your Pocket Damage Your _____?

Health Warning:  Can a Cell Phone Carried Regularly in Your Pocket Damage Your _____?

A correlation between cell phone use and testicular cancer, reduced Testosterone levels, lowered seminal volume and sperm count?  Read on to see...


by Mike Geary - Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer

Author of best-selling program:  The Truth about 6-Pack Abs

You've probably started hearing in the media about emerging studies showing possible correlations between heavy cell phone use and brain tumors.  But what not many people are talking about is the risk of carrying cell phones in our pockets for hours each day.  This is where it gets even more interesting and a little scary too!

First of all, to both guys and gals... read this article carefully, as it contains some potentially scary health issues related to cell phone use.  And although the examples are geared towards men's issues, I wouldn't trust that it's only men that can experience health issues from heavy cell phone use.
You're also going to want to pass this page on to your friends and family to help them protect their health, and the health of their "crotch"... sounds funny, I know...but this is serious business.

To start, I realize that some people simply don't believe that something as small as a cell phone can give off any radiation levels that could harm your health over time. But we're not talking about immediate harm... we're talking about long term harm from chronic use, which most of us in this day and age use cell phones or have them in our pockets daily. 
According to a recent article published on Yahoo Health, and a large health study conducted, the 2010 Interphone study...  "People who chatted via cell for just 30 minutes a day for 10 years saw their risk of glioma (the type of brain tumor that killed Ted Kennedy) rise 40 percent".


I feel like we are all currently in an inadvertent giant human guinea pig study right now with cell phone use.  Not purposely, but simply because cell phones (and another dangerous new phenomenon, our constant exposure to radiation from "wifi" and other wireless technologies) moved onto the scene so fast and infiltrated the entire population over the last 10 years.

Think about it... most of the population has only been using cell phones and wifi heavily for less than 10 years now... that's not a long enough time to know long term consequences (such as 15-30 year cancer risks) and most studies that supposedly "prove" the safety of cell phones have been funded by the telecom industry and have ridiculously low usage levels that they study.

We're definitely finding that the average person has a cell phone either strapped to their ear or carried in a pocket for more hours per day than any studies have any definitive long-term safety data on.

As Tim Ferriss points out in his fascinating new book, The 4-Hour Body ... "Most of the studies performed in the US that conclude no negative effect are funded either directly or indirectly (as with many IEEE studies) by cell phone manufacturers and carriers.  Does this prove malfeasance?  No, but it should raise a red flag."


One of the things that scares me about the possible harmful long term effects of carrying a cell phone in my pockets is potential testicular cancer.  I honestly feel that as the years go on, and we get to a level of chronic cell phone use where people have been carrying these things in their pockets for 10 or 15 years or more, we're going to see testicular cancer rates skyrocket.

But cancer risks are long term, and we may not have enough data from studies yet to prove definitive cancer risks such as testicular cancer.  So let's look at more current measurements that can prove health problems associated with cell phone use...

According to Tim Ferriss in his book, The 4-Hour Body ... "Lo and behold, jumping from article to article on Medline, there were more than a handful of studies that showed significant decreases in serum testosterone in rats following even moderate exposure (30 minutes per day, 5 days a week, for 4 weeks) to 900 megahertz radio frequency electro-magnetic fields (EMF), which is what most GSM cell phones produce."


Beyond lowering testosterone, can cell phones hurt your "swimmers"?
Tim did some more digging, but this time switched gears from just cell phone effects on lowering testosterone levels, and he began researching cell phone effects on sperm count and function.

Tim continues, "Of the dozens of studies that I found, most done in Europe, more than 70% concluded the same thing: cell phone radiation impairs sperm function."


In The 4-Hour Body, Tim also presents the results of a study he read about male Wistar rats that were exposed to a mobile phone for 1 hour continuously per day for 28 days... the end result of the study was that the mobile phone exposure to the rats significantly reduced the % of motile sperm.  The conclusion was that mobile phones negatively affect semen quality and may impair male fertility.

Think about this... they were only exposed to the mobile phone radiation for 1 hour per day for 28 days, and showed negative effects on sperm count and function.... how many of us out there carry a cell phone in our pocket for like 8-10 hours every day!!!!
Doesn't look good for our "boys", does it?

Now it gets even more interesting... It turns out that Tim first started researching the correlation between low sperm count and cell phone use because he went and got a sperm count test, and found out that his numbers were surprisingly low.

In Tim's words... "the lab results, which were available the afternoon after my session, put my sperm count on the low range of normal, borderline problematic. I couldn't believe it.  Assuming it was a lab mistake, I repeated the drill 3 weeks later and came back with an even lower count. The more tests I did over the next 12 months, the lower the results."
After Tim started researching the effects of cell phone use on sperm count, he realized that for years, he'd been carrying a cell phone in his pocket for about 12 hours per day, most days of the week.

So he decided to do a test...

For 11 weeks, Tim decided that he would no longer carry his cell phone in his pocket... or as he puts it "my phone was no longer allowed to cuddle with my testicles".

Instead, he kept the phone on the other side of the room if working at home, or if he had to go somewhere, he kept his phone either strapped to his arm with an ipod armband, or in a backpack pocket.  If he had to carry it in his pocket, he turned it off, and only turned it back on occasionally to check messages.

He actually performed this test for 11 weeks for a specific reason... sperm production takes an estimated 64 days in humans... so he wanted to wait that long, plus an extra 2 weeks for buffer.

The results of the 11 week "no-cell-phone-in-the-pocket" test:


The numbers are shocking...

• Ejaculate volume:  44% increase
• Motile sperm per milliliter:  100% increase
• Motile sperm per ejaculate:  185% increase

Now Tim admits that his study wasn't perfect, as there may have been other influences that weren't accounted for, such as his diet not being exactly the same during each time period.  However, he feels confident enough that these results speak for themselves.... after all, the results are pretty significant!

Personally, cell phone health issues is also a topic I've been reading a good deal about in the last couple of years.  Whether there's any conclusive evidence of cancer risk from cell phones, perhaps that's still to be determined... but I think we have significant evidence that cell phone use (and particularly carrying it in the pocket) can reduce both Testosterone levels (not good!) and also reduce sperm count and function (also scary!).

And please guys... don't start carrying around 2 cell phones in each pocket as a form of birth control!  All jokes aside, remember that there are possible bigger implications to this than just reduced sperm count... we're talking lower testosterone levels, possible increased cancer risk, etc.

What about women?  Please ladies, I wouldn't trust that health issues are only happening to men... I'm sure there are complications that can happen to women too...so beware ladies!
In fact, on the recent Yahoo Health article, according to David Carpenter, M.D., director of the Institute for Health and Environment at the University at Albany (regarding carrying cell phones near the pelvis, or using laptops on the lap),"For women, the studies aren't quite there yet, but I think we can say that anything that might cause cancer almost always causes birth defects, so pregnant women—or those wanting to become pregnant soon—should take extra precautions."


What I've done to help protect myself from these risks is this:


1. When I'm at home, I keep my cell phone on the other side of my home office, or in another room.  I try not to keep it anywhere near me most of the day.  If I get a call, I simply get up and answer it, the same way that we used to have to walk across the room to answer a phone before the days of mobile phones!

2. In my car, I keep my phone off of my body and put it in the front console or the passenger seat if I don't have a passenger.  The farther away from your body, the better.

3. When I go to the gym, go hiking, biking, etc... I leave that sucker in the car!  I don't want it on my body any longer than it has to be.  After all, I think a LOT of us need to learn how to not be a slave to our cell phones.  The texts and voicemails will be waiting when you're done your hike or your gym workout...don't be a slave to your phone!

4. If I absolutely must carry my cell phone on me, such as if I'm meeting friends out and need to be able to contact them... well, in that case, I simply try to keep the phone out of my pocket as much as possible... if we're at a restaurant, I put the phone on the edge of the table instead of in my pocket, or I just turn it off if I no longer need to get in touch with friends.

5.  Remember that EMF dangers aren't only with cell phones...it also occurs with Wifi, and other wireless devices.  So I also try to never use my laptop on my lap... If I'm at an airport, I usually try to find a table to sit at, so the laptop isn't actually sitting on my "junk".  Also, if possible, I try to use a wired internet connection (ethernet) instead of Wifi or mobile broadband.  In my house, I've also switched to a wired internet connection and gotten rid of the wireless router altogether.

With all of this said, will I ever give up my cell phone?
Well, let's be realistic...the cell phone has become an important part of our lives, and most of us aren't willing to give it up.  However, I plan to take the 5 steps that I listed above to minimize my risk.

I hope you take this issue as seriously as it should be taken.  It's time most of us wake up and realize that we are all inadvertently involving ourselves in a giant human guinea pig study on the risks of chronic cell phone and wifi use.

Thanks to Tim Ferriss and his new 4-Hour Body book for providing some of the tests and info in this article!  

Please help protect your friends and family and share this article with them:


http://www.truthaboutabs.com/cell-phone-damages-crotch.html

Melatonin in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders

V Srinivasan¹, SR Pandi-Perumal², DP Cardinali³, B Poeggeler⁴ and R Hardeland^4*

• Corresponding author: R Hardeland rhardel@gwdg.de

Author Affiliations

¹Department of Physiology, School of Medical Sciences, University Sains Malaysia, Kampus Kesihatan, 16150, Kubang kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia

²Comprehensive Center for Sleep Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 1176 – 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10029, USA

³Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Buenos Aires, 1121, Buenos Aires, Argentina

⁴Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, University of Goettingen, Berliner Str. 28, D-37073 Goettingen, Germany

For all author emails, please log on.

Behavioral and Brain Functions 2006, 2:15 doi:10.1186/1744-9081-2-15

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at:http://www.behavioralandbrainfunctions.com/content/2/1/15

Received:	21 March 2006
Accepted:	4 May 2006
Published:	4 May 2006

© 2006 Srinivasan et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Increased oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction have been identified as common pathophysiological phenomena associated with neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD) and Huntington's disease (HD). As the age-related decline in the production of melatonin may contribute to increased levels of oxidative stress in the elderly, the role of this neuroprotective agent is attracting increasing attention. Melatonin has multiple actions as a regulator of antioxidant and prooxidant enzymes, radical scavenger and antagonist of mitochondrial radical formation. The ability of melatonin and its kynuramine metabolites to interact directly with the electron transport chain by increasing the electron flow and reducing electron leakage are unique features by which melatonin is able to increase the survival of neurons under enhanced oxidative stress. Moreover, antifibrillogenic actions have been demonstrated in vitro, also in the presence of profibrillogenic apoE4 or apoE3, and in vivo, in a transgenic mouse model. Amyloid-β toxicity is antagonized by melatonin and one of its kynuramine metabolites. Cytoskeletal disorganization and protein hyperphosphorylation, as induced in several cell-line models, have been attenuated by melatonin, effects comprising stress kinase downregulation and extending to neurotrophin expression. Various experimental models of AD, PD and HD indicate the usefulness of melatonin in antagonizing disease progression and/or mitigating some of the symptoms. Melatonin secretion has been found to be altered in AD and PD. Attempts to compensate for age- and disease-dependent melatonin deficiency have shown that administration of this compound can improve sleep efficiency in AD and PD and, to some extent, cognitive function in AD patients. Exogenous melatonin has also been reported to alleviate behavioral symptoms such as sundowning. Taken together, these findings suggest that melatonin, its analogues and kynuric metabolites may have potential value in prevention and treatment of AD and other neurodegenerative disorders.

Introduction

Oxidative damage has been suggested to be the primary cause of aging and age-associated neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and Huntington's disease (HD). This concept is based on the free radical hypothesis of aging as proposed by Harman [1]. Many reviews on AD present compelling evidence for a decisive participation of severe oxidative stress in the development of neuropathology seen in this disease[2-9]. Immunohistochemical proof that enhanced oxidative stress and damage to biomolecules are hallmarks of the disease and its progression was first presented by Pappolla et al. [3]. This study confirmed findings demonstrating increased levels of lipid peroxidation in vitro observed in autopsy samples of brains afflicted by AD [10]. Because of its high rate of oxygen consumption and its high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids, the brain exhibits increased vulnerability to oxidative stress. Elevated lipid peroxidation, as found in the brains of AD patients, not only reveals oxidative stress [10-13], but also exerts secondary effects on protein modification, oxidation and conformation [14,15]. Increased protein and DNA oxidation also occurs in AD. Measurements of protein carbonyl, 3,3'-dityrosine and 3-nitrotyrosine in post mortem brain samples from AD patients have shown increased oxidative and nitrosative protein modification in the hippocampal and neocortical regions, but not in the cerebellum [14,16-18]. Free radical attack on DNA results in strand breaks, DNA-protein cross linkage, and base modification. Double- and single-strand breaks were elevated in AD cortex and hippocampus, but this has to be largely attributed to apoptotic fragmentation [19,20]. Enhanced oxidative DNA modification is, however, also demonstrable, mostly as 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) [21-23], a product primarily formed by attack of hydroxyl radicals [24], but other modified bases such as 8-OH-adenine have also been demonstrated [25]. Augmented free radical damage to lipids, proteins and nucleic acids has been reported for the substantia nigra of parkinsonian patients [26]. Therefore, numerous compounds with antioxidant properties have been suggested for treatment of AD and other neurodegenerative diseases [27-30]. Among these substances, melatonin is unique for several reasons: it is a natural compound synthesized in the pineal gland and other body tissues; it can be released by the pineal gland via the pineal recess into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), in much higher concentrations than into the circulation [31,32]; its production decreases with the advancement of age, a fact which has been suggested to be one of the major causes of age-associated neurodegenerative diseases [8,9,33,34]. This review focuses on the role of melatonin in the etiology of AD and other neurodegenerative disorders and on the therapeutic potential of melatonin in these pathologies, including effects on sleep and behavior.

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http://www.behavioralandbrainfunctions.com/content/2/1/15