Reagan sailors with radiation sickness?

[Higgs]

I keep seeing this story pop up, and it doesn't make sense to me. Does anyone have any facts?


"When the USS Ronald Reagan responded to the tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011, Navy sailors including Quartermaster Maurice Enis gladly pitched in with rescue efforts.

But months later, while still serving aboard the aircraft carrier, he began to notice strange lumps all over his body. Testing revealed he'd been poisoned with radiation, and his illness would get worse. And his fiance and fellow Reagan quartermaster, Jamie Plym, who also spent several months helping near the Fukushima nuclear power plant, also began to develop frightening symptoms, including chronic bronchitis and hemorrhaging."




http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/20/sickened-by-service-more-us-sailors-claim-cancer-from-helping-at-fukushima/

[HalfHazzard]

I keep seeing this, and have no additional actual knowledge.

There are 51 plaintiffs with "weird" (my word) symptoms.  Crew complement (wikipedia) is 3,200, which would give an incidence of "cancer" of 1.6%.  If we throw Air Wing and assume 5,000 crew, then the incidence of "cancer" is 1.02%.  Although the article reports USS Essex crew members are claiming similar symptoms.

I'm not one to doubt serious illness in people, any ailment that is inexplicable and life altering sucks.  However, the percentages and the non specific symptoms make me skeptical.  Call me a sympathetic skeptic I guess.

[roadhp]

Based on what I know about surveys performed on Nimitz class carriers, having been on one, the chances of getting sick from potable water made from water off the coast of Japan using a distilling plant, especially acute symptoms, is right next to nill.  The chances of not finding out that the water was contaminated is also pretty low.

[Higgs]

It smells of bulls**t, to me.

Justin

[61nomad]

From what I can tell there was no radioiodine sampling done.  So at 100 nautical miles from the source it is possible that they got some significant iodine uptakes.

If anybody wants to decifer this and summarize, feel free.  I don't have time right now.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/83400742/USS-Ronald-Reagan-contamination-reports-from-Fukushima-Daiichi-Pages-From-ML12052A107-FOIA-PA-2011-0118-FOIA-PA-2011-0119-FOIA-PA-2011-0120-Res

[leavingreality]

From what I can tell there was no radioiodine sampling done.  So at 100 nautical miles from the source it is possible that they got some significant iodine uptakes.

If anybody wants to decifer this and summarize, feel free.  I don't have time right now.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/83400742/USS-Ronald-Reagan-contamination-reports-from-Fukushima-Daiichi-Pages-From-ML12052A107-FOIA-PA-2011-0118-FOIA-PA-2011-0119-FOIA-PA-2011-0120-Res

You're correct. They didn't. I'm a little confused why they wouldn't, though. This is a nuclear ship. The ELTs should have been all over it. Does that mean they didn't issue iodine either? It's hard to decipher. There's a lot of black on those pages.

[Fermi2]

Why would they issue Ioddine? No one was exposed to a significant amount of radiation.
The ELTs on the ship state nothing was amiss. surveys were normal and no air sampling showed anything out of line.

You guys are allegedly all NUKES. SO TRY THINKING!

[Marlin]

Initial report shows no significant exposure. The ship was operating at sea about 100 miles northeast of the power plant at the time. Please note that the only personnel with detectable exposure were airmen on helicopters not quartermasters who are claiming radiation induced cancer.


PACIFIC OCEAN (March 14, 2011) -  The U.S. 7th Fleet has temporarily repositioned its ships and aircraft away from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant after detecting low level contamination in the air and on its aircraft operating in the area.

The source of this airborne radioactivity is a radioactive plume released from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant. For perspective, the maximum potential radiation dose received by any ship's force personnel aboard the ship when it passed through the area was less than the radiation exposure received from about one month of exposure to natural background radiation from sources such as rocks, soil, and the sun.

Using sensitive instruments, precautionary measurements of three helicopter aircrews returning to USS Ronald Reagan after conducting disaster relief missions near Sendai identified low levels of radioactivity on 17 air crew members. The low level radioactivity was easily removed from affected personnel by washing with soap and water. They were subsequently surveyed, and no further contamination was detected.

As a precautionary measure, USS Ronald Reagan and other U.S. 7th Fleet ships conducting disaster response operations in the area have moved out of the downwind direction from the site to assess the situation and determine what appropriate mitigating actions are necessary.
http://www.cpf.navy.mil/news.aspx/000320

Now let's look at the World Health Organization assessment of induced cancer from the accident. From an article this year.

Two years after Japan's nuclear plant disaster, an international team of experts said Thursday that residents of areas hit by the highest doses of radiation face an increased cancer risk so small it probably won't be detectable.


I'll let you draw a conclusion but I think it is obvious.


http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-small-cancer-fukushima-accident.html

[leavingreality]

Why would they issue Ioddine? No one was exposed to a significant amount of radiation.
The ELTs on the ship state nothing was amiss. surveys were normal and no air sampling showed anything out of line.

You guys are allegedly all NUKES. SO TRY THINKING!

The discussion from Mueller was that there was increased background airborne, not that much, probably not over limits, but enough to acknowledge. This discussion took place the day of the accident. Even not intending to be in the plume, procedures should have required them to issue iodine and probably sample for radioiodine as a just in case precaution.

This just seems like your typical frivolous lawsuit scam. If it wasn't a significant dose, it should be an open and shut  case, well documented by the Navy.

[Fermi2]

Why the HELL would procedures require to issue Iodine because of an increase in Iodine. Once you issue Iodine you've pretty much fried a thyroid and placed an individual at risk for an early death As a former Emergency Director and Dodse Assessor I find your ignorance appalling.

[retired nuke]

Really?
Significant levels of Iodine in the water / air?
100 freakin miles from the reactor?
Does anyone play in emergency drills here?
Hear of 10 mile EPZ?
These people claiming injury / illness are non-nuke, non-airman, non interactors with the potentially contaminated environment.

Think about radionuclide concentration this way - it's even less than the inverse square law - it's darn near the inverse CUBE law. Dispersal in ocean and air is by volume.... not by attenuation.

Scam

Like BZ says - think..

[BuddyThePug]

The nausea probably came from excessive exposure to these sad panda snacks...

[61nomad]

Really?
Significant levels of Iodine in the water / air?
100 freakin miles from the reactor?
Does anyone play in emergency drills here?
Hear of 10 mile EPZ?
These people claiming injury / illness are non-nuke, non-airman, non interactors with the potentially contaminated environment.

Think about radionuclide concentration this way - it's even less than the inverse square law - it's darn near the inverse CUBE law. Dispersal in ocean and air is by volume.... not by attenuation.

Scam

Like BZ says - think..

I guess it depends on what your definition of significant is.  I think 9E-9 microCi/ml beta-gamma and 0.6 mR/hr is a significant plume at 100 miles from the source.  Obviously it is not enough to give 71 sailors the wide variety of ailments that they have.  I think I remember it takes about 10 Rem to start seeing thyroid cancer, but it would be nice to see the I-131 data.  It would also be nice to see the alpha activity on the air samples.  I read that at least a couple of the crew on the Reagan were given KI tablets.

http://enformable.com/2012/03/uss-ronald-reagan-measured-0-6-mrhr-direct-gamma-shine-from-clouds-130-miles-from-fukushima-daiichi/

http://www.stripes.com/news/http-www-stripes-com-news-pentagon-preparing-for-a-nuclear-worst-case-scenario-at-fukushima-1-1379-1.137969

Over and out.

[leavingreality]

Why the HELL would procedures require to issue Iodine because of an increase in Iodine. Once you issue Iodine you've pretty much fried a thyroid and placed an individual at risk for an early death As a former Emergency Director and Dodse Assessor I find your ignorance appalling.

The Navy training on iodine is pretty reflexive. I don't know anything about frying the thyroid, but I do know that as of four years ago, it was pretty much expected that iodine would be issued any time you even thought about a reactor accident. If there are any side effects like frying your thyroid, they weren't mentioned.The CDC doesn't mention them either: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/radiation/ki.asp

My point, though, was that the whole situation seems odd. And I would expect the Navy to have it well documented including negative data surveys. I would be surprised to find it otherwise.

[Higgs]

I thought it smelled like bullcrap. Thanks for confirming, all.

Justin

[HeavyD]

Friend of mine posted this several weeks back on Facebook.

I spent several hours searching for the lawsuit that is claimed in the article.  I found zero records of it either in any Federal records or on the state of California's websites.

I DO find it interesting that the "news" institutions that reprint and spread this information are not held liable for reporting information that has been, what appears to be, 100 % fabricated.

[Fermi2]

Last I heard they were suing TEPCO not the Navy. They know TEPCO can't get Navy surveys to prove nothing is wrong. One guy stated he'd lost weight since he left the Navy. That PROBABLY had to do with not eating 4 meals a day..

[leavingreality]

I have a hard time imagining the Navy wouldn't produce surveys to demonstrate they hadn't put sailors in serious risk. If I remember correctly, they publish exposure and environmental issues yearly even if it is official use only. But if they don't produce the records, there really isn't much of a case.

[Marlin]

US Sailors' Lawsuit Dismissed in Fukushima Radiation Exposure Case

San Francisco Attorney Charles Bonner subsequently filed a federal suit in the Southern District of on behalf of a dozen sailors...but the number has since expanded to over 50. During a recent interview with Tammy Bruce, Paul Garner (an Encinitas attorney who is also involved with the case) said that number is likely to expand to over 70 claimants in the next few weeks.

Though a San Diego judge dismissed the sailors case against the Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, that isn't the end of the legal battle on behalf of the sailors. The judge's ruling was based on a technicality and the case will continue in January.

http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/12/us-sailors-lawsuit-dismissed-in-fukushima-radiation-exposure-case/

Reagan sailors press on in radiation lawsuit

"For perspective, the worst-case radiation exposure for a crew member on USS Ronald Reagan is less than 25 percent of the annual radiation exposure to a member of the U.S. public from natural sources of background radiation, such as the sun, rocks and soil," spokesman Lt. Greg Raelson said.

http://www.navytimes.com/article/20131228/NEWS08/312280004/Reagan-sailors-press-radiation-lawsuit

[Marlin]

USS Reagan Exposed to More Radiation Than Expected

...Weber said that the readings were greater than what was expected but were still fairly insignificant.

A final Defense Department report regarding radiation doses during Operation Tomodachi, including for those aboard the Reagan, agreed that the levels were too low to see any adverse health effects.

"The reported radiation doses to fleet-based individuals were at least one order of magnitude less than any dose associated with adverse health effects," according to the report, which was released on the Operation Tomodachi Registry in September.




...Lawsuit expanding

An amended lawsuit against TEPCO was filed last month, after a San Diego judge took issue with aspects of the original suit. The 50 servicemembers and their children in the suit claim to suffer from exposure-related ailments such as unexplained cancer, excessive bleeding and thyroid issues; lawyers say more than 100 more have asked to join the suit. The majority of the plaintiffs are from the Reagan, which can accommodate 6,275 sailors.

Many of the issues regarding the Reagan's Tomodachi mission, including its proximity to the plant and whether sailors on board were given iodine tablets, have been challenged by servicemembers in the suit.

The Japanese utility has until March 31 to respond, according to Paul Garner, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

Congress has given Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Jonathan Woodson until April 15 to submit a report regarding the Reagan and adverse health impacts.



http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/03/17/uss-reagan-exposed-to-more-radiation-than-expected.html?ESRC=navy.nl