EDITORIAL - Whom do we trust?

One looming environmental issue developing right now is the release of treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan into the Pacific Ocean.

Various groups of environmentalists, fisherfolks, and cause-oriented groups from different countries bordering Japan are up in protest against it. Even our own fisherfolks have had their say, raising fears for our fishing resources and livelihood.

“The Japanese government must heed the growing clamor of its neighboring countries to protect the world’s largest and deepest ocean from the toxic radioactive wastes,” said Ronnel Arambulo, vice chairman of Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas.

While the International Atomic Energy Agency said that the first batch of diluted water prepared for discharge showed that tritium levels were well within safe limits, this appears not to assuage the fears of some, as Greenpeace claims the filtration doesn’t work and that a vast amount of radioactivity will be released into the ocean.

Now the question is: Whom do we trust to know more about this issue? Those radioactivity experts with all their assurances or those on the other side with all their fears?

At face value, it’s easy for us to immediately say “trust the experts”. There is also good reason for this; they do have all the equipment as well as the experience and expertise when it comes to dealing with radiation and radioactive waste. It’s literally their bread and radioactive butter.

However, it’s not them who will suffer directly if something adverse does happen, but the fisherfolks and neighboring countries. And when that happens it will be their own bread and butter that will be affected.

We can also cite history where “experts” made mistakes, where they deemed something harmless that later proved wrong, like in the cases of Agent Orange which is now causing health issues among Vietnam War veterans and DDT, which was liberally sprayed in public places in the US before it was found to cause cancer.

What was found safe today may not be so safe tomorrow.

Of course, we aren’t claiming to know who is right in this particular issue. Only that we hope the release of treated nuclear wastewater of into the Pacific will not prove to be a disaster in the making in the years or even decades to come.