Mothers Be Poets

this week Adrienne Rich died
her stories about mothering made me
understand how alone I felt
as the milk sprayed from my breasts
and my baby cried endlessly
and my own dead mother dead

who was I /all milk?

I want/ed to be a mother
but I wanted to be more /too

she sweet creamy
white and bald
yet I (still)
motherless
marching back
and forth
under a dark
sky a baby
wailing

if you have an angry
hate/love you mom teenager
the glass breaks

Adrienne Rich make/s sense

she got it right when she said
you give and give
and then they grow up

in the stillness of separation~ 

a red hawk swoops past and tells of another way~

shift that m/otherhood
of emptiness and grief

fill your womb with
dreams of wild birds &
unbroken horses

oh mothers need to be mothers
and more then 'mothers'
(who let their blood)

oh mothers be poets!

ATOMIC RADIATION IS MORE HARMFUL TO WOMEN

We are getting sick and dying from radiation exposure already, and it is happening in disproportionate numbers. 

We are asking for your help in making this known. Please join us!
 

Disproportionate Harm: Women and Children are more Vulnerable. 

This year the Helen Caldicott Foundation in partnership with NIRS, and all other groups who want to join us (national and international, the more the better), will embark on the start of a major education to action campaign on the effects of radiation exposure on the health of all people. But, its particular focus will be the disproportionate risk radiation exposure poses to women and children. Buried in the literature to date is the fact that men are more resistant to radiation. The safety standards, which time has shown protect no one, were designed at the time of the Manhattan Project to protect young, healthy, western, men. Presumably, military men expected to accept a certain degree of risk in exchange for protecting their country.

Insufficient as it is, even the National Academy of Sciences BEIR V11 Report, widely accepted as the industry standard, clearly states:

1. There is no safe dose of ionizing radiation. Any exposure can trigger cancer.
2. Although the reasons are not yet clearly understood, women and children are significantly more vulnerable.
3. Women are 40-60% more likely to get cancer than men, given the same exposure. They are about 50% (half again) more likely to acquire a fatal cancer from this exposure. This means that for every two men who die of radiation related cancer, three women will die given a similar exposure.
4. Children between the ages of 0-5 are more vulnerable than all adults, both men and women. But what is almost never discussed, also from the BEIR V11 Report, is that in this age group little girls are twice as vulnerable as boys. This means that for every boy, there will be two girls who will acquire a fatal or non-fatal cancer. 

This is truly shocking, and when applied to the situation in Japan leads to a horrifying vision of the future. But, the fact is, these same numbers have been found for exposure to tritium and other radioisotopes, released from every nuclear reactor legally and illegally. Furthermore, the industry’s denial that clusters of childhood leukemia exist around nuclear reactors has been refuted by a number of current studies that have found these clusters DO exist. This includes the recent Geocap study in France, a country with much invested in NOT finding this to be true.

With a little thought and some simple choreography this could lend itself perfectly to the die-in concept. If actuarial figures were holographs, we would start to see the people of Japan begin to fade before our eyes, with disproportionate vulnerability. For every two men, three women disappearing from the future, lost to cancers and radiation-related disease. For every adult, there will be disproportionately more children. For every boy, twice as many little girls... vanishing.

This would be a powerful image if acted out in public.

The other image we need to sear into the public mind is that radiation exposures are cumulative and contamination of the food chain is NOT just a tiny bit of radiation. It is many, many, internal exposures to ionizing radiation, large or small over time; exposures that may have bio-accumulated several times already, depending on the original source, as radiation moves up the food chain.

The top of the food chain for bioaccumulation is not the standard, neutered “reference man” pictured everywhere. It is the human baby, both the unborn foetus, and the newborn. This is a very simple image to create for any kind of demonstration.
In this country we talk a lot about the nuclear family. There is this stereotypical image where the father protects the mother and the family; the mother protects the children; the mother’s body protects the baby in the belly. But radiation creeps up behind this nuclear family. First it takes or harms the foetus; then it takes the little girls; then the little boys; then the mother, and, finally, the father. Acting this out, while it verges more on street theatre than a simple die-in, would not be difficult and I think it would be compelling. I also think it would make a great supporting animation if any computer animators are interested, and should be short and to the point, and done in Japanese and English (and all other languages).

Some supporting material from NIRS:
http://www.nirs.org/fukushima/eeri_nirs_paper022212.pdf
1. There is no "safe" dose of radiation -- every exposure has the risk of adverse health outcomes, including fatal cancer; all life-forms are impacted, not only our species;
2. The outcome from radiation most studied is cancer -- but it is not the only health impact;
3. Children are most vulnerable to harm from radiation due to smaller body mass and rapid cell division; and girls are more impacted than boys;
4. Women are 50 percent more vulnerable to harm from a given level of exposure compared to men (this may be due to greater mass of radiosensitive reproductive tissue in females);
5. Some people are born with a gene that makes them more vulnerable to radiation harm;
6. Internal exposure results from breathing contaminated air, drinking contaminated water or eating contaminated food and this results in higher levels (and generally longer exposure) to tissue than purely external doses like X-rays;
7. Current methods of calculating radiation doses do not account for the difference of internal and external exposure, or gender; sometimes age and body mass are factored, but usually not when reporting an ambient radiation level.

The total release of radioactivity from the Fukushima disaster, measured in Curies or Becquerels has not yet been estimated, in part because it has not ended. We know the radioactivity from Japan has "gone global" since the radioactive air masses circled the Northern Hemisphere repeatedly. We cannot reliably know what the consequences over time will be; we will hear many estimates in the years to come, and most of these estimates will not agree with each other. Barring change, most will under-report the consequences for women and for children since: the regulation of radiation and nuclear activity (worldwide) ignores the disproportionately greater harm to both women and children. *7

ATOMIC RADIATION IS MORE HARMFUL TO WOMEN: http://www.nirs.org/radiation/radhealth/radiationwomen.pdf

We have supporting material available from Mary Olsen of NIRS on the vulnerability of children that is not yet on their website, but we are happy to share it in draft form with anyone who is interested.  

Contact: Mali Lightfoot
Director of Development
Helen Caldicott Foundation (www.NuclearFreePlanet.org)
malilightfoot@gmail.com
617.650.5048

We Remember Fukushima

This week we remember the March 11, 2011 disaster in Fukushima, Japan.

We remember the earthquake, the Tsunami, and the multiple nuclear plant meltdowns that have released untold (literally) amounts of radiation into the atmosphere, soil, water, and oceans.

We remember the many dead, the many afraid and traumatized, the many displaced forever from their homes and farms.

We remember those who now live in fear of future cancers and genetic mutations.

We remember the many acknowledged and unacknowledged victims of radiation poisoning and contamination. 

We remember the children who wear geiger counters to school each day and their parents who ache and worry about the radioactive food, air, and water they consume.

We remember the Buddha of the Radiation Zone who cares for the abandoned animals.

We remember and pray for the future generations everywhere, as radiation travels and circulates throughout the planet and remains hazardous for tens of thousands of years.

We remember and honor those who fight against nuclear ecocide.

We remember and express our gratitude--especially-- to the thousands of Japanese mothers and green activists who protest on behalf of all beings of this planet.

We remember.

This week, at Stony Brook University, in New York, we are hosting an event to commemorate Fukushima:

Fukushima: One Year Later  
Thursday, March 8, 4-6 p.m. 
Humanities Building #1006

Speaker: Professor Murakami (visiting from Japan)

Speaker: Tomoi Zeimer (Mother, Artist and Activist)

Commentary: Heidi Hutner 

 (Professor of Sustainability and English, Stony Brook University)

Respondent: Cindy Folkers (Beyond Nuclear)                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are events to commemorate the nuclear disaster taking place all week long in the New York Area.  Here is a schedule.

Currently, there are 23 Fukushima-style reactors in operation in the U.S.: GE Mark 1 reactors.

In the 1980s, GE engineers blew the whistle, warning the NRC and GE that these reactors were not safe.  Their warnings were not heeded.  We need to shut the 23 GE Mark 1 reactors down now.  In total, the US has 104 nuclear plants.  The NRC has done little to nothing to make sure of their safety after the Fukushima disaster.

To learn more, go to Beyond Nuclear, NIRS, and Nuclear Free Planet.

Also, join Helen Caldicott in front of the White House on March 30th, 2012 for a massive anti-nuclear protest!