100 New Marine Species Each Discovered Off Chile, New Zealand Under The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census Project (1)
International Experts Symposium-Radiation and Health Risks-4 [2011/10/12]
 Experts continue their discussion at the reception International Experts Symposium —Radiation and Health Risks-4 — Drafting Recommendations — Hitherto, it has been customary for recommendations that are made following international conferences to be drafted in advance. We distributed conference materials to supporting organizations such as the Cabinet Office, the Ministries of Justice; Foreign Affairs; Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; Health, Labour and Welfare; Economy, Trade and Industry; Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; and the Environment. As expected, some of them had asked for main points of the recommendations to be given them in advance. We told them we were starting from scratch and recommendations would only be available at the conclusion of our meeting. Some of them may have doubted the authenticity of our conference because of the lack of recommendations at the start. As the organizer of the conference, I did not allow recommendations to be made in advance. For one thing, lack of information regarding the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident and the insincere responses of the government and the Tokyo Electric Power Company have become a hotbed of uncertainties and unhappiness among people in Japan and around the world. I wished to avoid any possibilities of our sincere intentions being misunderstood if the recommendations were published ahead of the meeting. The drafting of the recommendations involving all experts that began at 3 p.m. on September 12, the last day of the conference, was indeed a difficult process. We had planned to have the recommendations ready for distribution at the press conference that was to start at 5:30 p.m. Dr. David Heymann, one of the members of the Organizing Committee, had been taking notes for the draft document during the conference, and Dr. Abel Gonzalez went through the document paragraph by paragraph, asking other experts for comments. Many hands went up from those wishing to contribute to the draft recommendations. By the time Dr. Gonzalez had finalized the recommendations, it was past the time when the press conference was supposed to have begun. Therefore, we could only explain the gist of the recommendations to the press orally and promise to give them the final document later. Drafting the recommendations with the participation of all the experts was certainly rare if not unprecedented, and this was met with great appreciation. I marveled at the adept way in which Dr. Heymann and Gonzalez addressed each suggestion. The fruits of our labor, the Conclusion and the Recommendations, will be submitted to the government. Their contents will be shared with you in my blog later on. |