forbes...Drs. Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman, writing in theInternational Journal of Health Services, proposed that there were 14,000 “excess” deaths in the U.S. following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, due to the release of a plume of radioisotopes over 5000 miles away. This theory is preposterous on so many levels that I don’t know where to start.
The “study” found that during the 14 weeks following the accident, death rates in 104 U.S. cities were about 2 percent higher than those for the 14 weeks before the accident, constituting about 3,300 “extra” deaths. Applied to the entire country, this number rose to 14,000. Right away this smelled fishy. But that didn’t stop Mangano, as quoted in MedPage Today, from concluding that the finding is “a clarion call for more extensive research.” No it’s not—it’s a clarion call for some common sense.
