Scientists are trying to figure why scores of seals have washed ashore in Alaska this year either dead or suffering from a mysterious disease. The seals have lesions, irritated skin, and hair loss - often symptoms of radiation poisoning - and scientists worry it might have come from the Fukushima plant in Japan. So far - there's been no sign of elevated radiation in the waters in the Pacific Northwest - although the US government moved monitoring from daily to quarterly - but scientists are conducting tests to determine if indeed the seals have been poisoned by nuclear fallout making its way to US waters from Japan. Test results aren't expected for a few more weeks. A study conducted earlier this month suggested that as many as 14,000 premature deaths in the United States - mostly among infants - might be attributed to nuclear fallout from Fukushima. The world is clearly different now, post-Fukushima. No nukes.
-Thom
(How has the world changed for you? Tell us here.)
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