New downloads on HSfB - health & safety

New download tools and articles for health and safety

Amplify’d from www.healthandsafetytips.co.uk

New Downloads on Health and Safety for Beginners Health and Safety for Beginners Downloads. Our newest downloads (updated 28.03.11) >>> Travel Checklist by Safety Working Abroad Procedure by Safety Diseases Associated with Birds by Nigel Bown Risk Assessment Template by Phillip Baker   Other updates (updated 28.03.11) >>> New article - New Requirement For Hidden Boiler Flues by FireAngel New article added - From irritating to dangerous to life threatening – the three warning sign gradients by Darren Joint of Viking Signs

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View from space Japanese Quake and Tsuna

Astronauts Photograph Japan Quake and Tsunami Aftermath from Space - incredible images showing the sheer scale of things as it happened.

Amplify’d from www.space.com

Astronauts Photograph Japan Quake and Tsunami Aftermath from Space

by Tariq Malik, SPACE.com Managing Editor

Date: 15 March 2011 Time: 04:21 PM ET

On March 13, 2011, floodwaters lingered along the Japanese coast near the city of Sendai, in the aftermath of a magnitude 9.0 earthquake. An Expedition 26 astronaut took this photograph from an altitude of 220 miles (350 kilometers) up on the International Space Station. North is at upper right. This picture shows an area north of Sendai, and part of the city of Higashimatsushima appears along the right edge of the image. CREDIT: NASA/JSC View full size image

Astronauts in space have snapped photos from orbit of the effects of the massive earthquake and tsunami that have devastated Japan. High-resolution photos taken from the International Space Station show some of the areas hit the hardest by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck the northeastern coast of Japan. "Our thoughts are with our friends in Japan," Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli , one of the three astronauts staying at the station, wrote in a Twitter post on March 13 – the same day one of the newly released photos was taken.

The March 13 photo captured by the astronauts shows how the region north of the coastal city of Sendai  appeared from the station's altitude of 220 miles (354 kilometers). The image shows Japan's Ishinomaki Bay, Naruse river and part of the city of Higashimatsushima. Flood water is rampant in the view.

"Both agricultural fields and settled areas are submerged by muddy water in this image," NASA officials said in a statement. "Water left by the tsunami surrounds the crisscrossing runways at Matsushima Airport." [See the March 13 astronaut photo of Japan]

The Ishinomaki Bay can also be seen coated in oil, which leaked from oil refineries damaged by the earthquake and tsunami.

Another photo shows the coastline of Sendai and other nearby regions as they appeared yesterday (March 14) from a slightly lower altitude of about 215 miles (345 km).

"Through a thin haze of clouds, flooding was still discernible south of Sendai days after the massive earthquake and resulting tsunami," NASA officials said of the image. [See the March 14 astronaut photo of Japan]

Through a thin haze of clouds, flooding was still discernible south of Sendai days after the massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami that struck on March 11, 2011. An Expedition 26 crew member took this photograph on March 14 from the International Space Station. CREDIT: NASA/JSC View full size image

Japan's space station role

The $100 billion International Space Station is the product of five different space agencies representing 15 countries including Japan, which is a major partner in the project. [Photos: Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in Pictures]

JAXA built the space station's largest single laboratory. It is named Kibo ("Hope" in Japanese) and includes a huge bus-size main module, an attic-like storage room, an exterior porch to hold experiments, as well as two windows, a small airlock and a robotic arm to move new experiments onto the outer porch.

Japan also provides unmanned robot cargo ships to deliver tons of supplies and hardware for crews on the space station. The second of these cargo ships, called HTV-2, is currently docked at the space station.

The earthquake also damaged Japan's Tsukuba Space Center – the home of Japan's space station control room – and severed a communications link between the center and NASA's space station Mission Control in Houston, NASA officials said yesterday.

In addition to the Tsukuba center, one other JAXA facility is closed and two others have had some services impacted, JAXA officials said on the agency's website.

Astronauts saddened by quake news Japan has trained eight astronauts to fly in space with three more currently undergoing training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. One of Japan's spaceflyers – astronaut Naoko Yamazaki – has posted a reassuring note via Twitter to answer public inquiries of her safety.

"Thanx for caring messages for the earthquakes in Japan. I'm fine. Lost electricity last night," Yamazaki wrote just after the earthquake. "Sincere prayers to those who are still suffering. And thanks to all the rescue teams."

Yesterday, station astronauts expressed their heartfelt sympathies to Japan as they prepared to return to Earth.

"Our hearts go out to our partners in Japan that have suffered greatly," the station's returning commander Scott Kelly of NASA said during a televised statement. "We really feel for them and hope and know they will recover from this, as the Japanese people are very, very resilient."

Kelly, the station's Expedition 26 mission commander, spoke during a ceremony to transfer control of the space station to Russian cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev. Kelly and two crewmates are returning to Earth Wednesday, leaving behind three other crewmates who will stay on the space station.

Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi thanked his NASA counterparts and the entire world for the outpouring of public support for Japan and its citizens.

"Thanks for the kind words from all over the world," Noguchi wrote on Twitter. "Our thoughts and prayers to victims of disaster." Read more at www.space.com

 

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Fukushima radiation exposure perspective

IonActive's radiation protection advisor Mark Ramsay puts a bit of perspective on the radiation exposures as a result of the explosions at the Japanese nuclear plant, Fukushima.

Amplify’d from www.ionactive.co.uk

Ionactive Consulting Blog

15/3/2011 - Nuclear events in Japan – Radiation Dose ‘high enough to effect human health’

Good morning all. Well it is 0400 on Tuesday morning in the UK and I find myself writing this before I get up (could not sleep). The reports coming in from Japan and specifically details about the Fukushima plants are disturbing - there is no denying that. I find myself looking at the story unfolding and having to concede that the state of the plants seem to worsening more than I would have speculated. Regardless of whether I am ‘pro nuclear' or not, I am not going to jump into a hole and try and deny anything else. The last few days, i.e. over the weekend and Monday (as it was an office day) I have found myself becoming quite involved in the media and watching closely what has been going on. From this point forward this will be harder to do as I am actually working (!) - I.e. client visits. So I will probably not be as up to speed as I would like regarding this evolving nuclear incident. However, before getting on the road I wanted to write down a few words about ‘dose' because I think it is important (and the media is full of all sorts of values now). Events in Japan Before doing that, I would just like to point you to the following article on the Depleted Cranium website ‘While everyone was focused on the nuclear plant'. For me this article puts into focus the tragedy that is unfolding in Japan, even at a time when the nuclear issues appear to be worsening. I will let you read the article but some highlights on the site are:

2800 confirmed dead Many more missing and feared dead Hospitals damaged (without electricity or water) Infrastructure destroy (rationing of water / electricity etc) Number homeless probably in the millions Millions of businesses destroyed or out of action (including major world manufacturers) Dam failures Oil refinery fires Etc

If you had been away on another planet and had just come back and picked up a newspaper, or turned on the news, you would be forgiven for linking the above tragic list of outcomes to the nuclear incident - not least because most of the media publications are almost 100% on the nuclear story. Now, I really am not downplaying the nuclear event (I don't think you will find I have in the earlier posts if you read them carefully), but take a look at the list again and be clear that none of these were nuclear related. So, accepting that this is not nuclear related - what is then? Well clearly the issue is down to the health effects of ionising radiation. I do not have the time (or energy this morning) to provide a fully checked (and peer reviewed) description of the science surrounding health effects of radiation. The problem is that I can pick and choose from a multitude of training materials, but that simply does not work when you have such a potentially diverse audience. So what follows is a quick brain dump of ideas and thoughts, mixed with some media files (which are probably too detailed for the majority but I have nothing better). Critical persons exposed It is first important to consider who is being exposed and how. There are broadly two groups of people: nuclear plant workers and members of the public (I include general emergency workers, relief workers and the media in the second group). Those most likely to be exposed are clearly the plant workers - they are nearer to the plant than anyone else. Units of Dose This is where things can get a bit complicated (well at least in a short article such as this). What I am going to do is first direct you to two YouTube videos that I have had produced. If you cannot get YouTube because you are at work (etc) then sorry - perhaps you can catch them later. Parts 1 and 2 on Radiation Dose are below. Take your time over this and perhaps watch a few times. Read more at www.ionactive.co.uk

 

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Artists, wire, household objects...

Amplify’d from bigpicture.posterous.com

What artists do if given wire and household objects...

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