Safety rules and procedures at the stricken Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant are being gradually relaxed, spreading anxiety and confusion amongst workers, according to a worker at the plant.
Furthermore, according to the worker, the lax safety attitude together with the extreme working environment, human error and workers being made to do jobs outside of their fields are creating a dangerous environment.
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He says now that the weather has grown warmer, wearing the full set of protective equipment, mask and all, is "like wearing a sauna suit." After a while, sweat a few centimeters deep collects in the mask, and "many people have collapsed from heat exhaustion."
"We were told that if we start feeling like we can't take the heat anymore, we should 'squat, calm down and breathe deeply.' Really, though, the limit is only about two to three hours. Once summer comes, things will be even tougher," he said.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/features/news/20110514p2a00m0na012000c.html Contaminated nuke plant workers going back on job as safety regs go by wayside
An employee of one of the subcontractors at Fukushima plant said he worked there without such a special permit and was exposed to 1.3 millisieverts of radiation over a 2 1/2-hour period. Subsequent screening detected radioactive substances on the back of the employee's head and neck, as well as those of about 10 co-workers.
They washed with special shampoo at the nuclear crisis operations center about 20 kilometers away from the plant. However, three of them were unable to completely decontaminate themselves. They tried again at a TEPCO facility but failed to completely remove radioactive substances from their bodies. TEPCO subsequently issued a certificate specifying the areas of their bodies contaminated with radioactive material, and they returned to work.
In cases where radioactive substances are detected on workers' bodies, their employers are required to submit a report detailing the work they performed and how they were contaminated to the original contractor, which in turn must notify TEPCO.
However, the workers' subcontractor has neither submitted such a report to the original contractor nor been instructed by the contractor or TEPCO to do so. The employee has pointed out that the safety regulations have been eased without any scrutiny amid the ongoing crisis.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110514p2a00m0na014000c.html Man dies after collapsing during Fukushima plant work
A worker at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant died Saturday after collapsing while carrying materials as part of crisis-fighting operations, the operator said.
It is the first time a worker has died at the plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. since the March 11 mega earthquake and tsunami triggered a series of radiation leakage accidents there. The cause of his death was not immediately known.
No radioactive substances have been detected on the man, who was in his 60s, and he apparently sustained no injuries, the utility said. The man had started working at the plant on Friday and was wearing protective gear at the time of the accident. He was exposed to radiation totaling 0.17 millisievert.
The man, an employee of a subcontractor, collapsed about one hour after he began working at 6 a.m. Saturday with another worker at a waste disposal processing facility. He was unconscious when he was taken to a medical room inside the plant past 7 a.m. and was confirmed dead at a hospital in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, the utility and other officials said.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110514p2g00m0dm011000c.html 
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