- Sputnik International
Asia
Find top stories and features from Asia and the Pacific region. Keep updated on major political stories and analyses from Asia and the Pacific. All you want to know about China, Japan, North and South Korea, India and Pakistan, Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Soaring Children’s Cancer Rates Linked to Fukushima Meltdowns

© AFP 2023 / POOLThe crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station is seen through a bus window in Okuma on November 12, 2011
The crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station is seen through a bus window in Okuma on November 12, 2011 - Sputnik International
Subscribe
A new analysis conducted by Japanese researchers suggests that children living in areas close to the Fukushima nuclear meltdown sites are at a higher risk of developing thyroid cancer.

Intensive checkups were ordered by the government of Japan following the March 2011 disaster as a precautionary measure, even though the possibility of radiation-caused diseases was repeatedly ruled out by professionals.

A part of the roof of a building covering the Unit 1 reactor, left, is seen removed at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014 - Sputnik International
Asia
TEPCO Removes Protective Cover Over Crippled Fukushima Reactor
Those claims didn't stop residents from fleeing "safe" areas out of fear that their family members might fall sick.

Reviews of Fukushima, carried out by World Health Organization and UNSCEAR (the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation), forecast that cancer rates would remain stable. Unfortunately, the latest ultrasound checkup results show residents' concerns may have not been groundless.

According to recent statistics, by the end of this summer thyroid cancer was suspected or confirmed in 137 of 370,000 children in Fukushima prefecture, as compared to one or two per year out of every million children in other areas.

"This is more than expected and emerging faster than expected," Toshihide Tsuda, a professor at Okayama University and lead author of the research, told the Associated Press. "This is 20 times to 50 times what would be normally expected."

The new study, based on a major health survey in the area and published in the journal Epidemiology, didn't provide definitive proof that radiation is responsible for those cancer cases. Some scientists pointed out the study's shortcomings, saying the reason for such significant difference in the disease rates lies in the stringent monitoring near Fukushima, which naturally leads to quicker discovery of tumors. But many claim that without increased vigilance many cases would have gone undetected.

Protesters wearing gas masks and white costumes similar to those of decontamination workers at the crippled Fukushima plant beat drums painted with radioactive waste symbols during an anti nuclear power demonstration march in Tokyo on July 29, 2012 - Sputnik International
Asia
Fukushima Police Sue 32 TEPCO Managers Over Radioactive Water Leak
Scott Davis, professor in the department of epidemiology at the University of Washington's School of Public Health, insisted that individual-level data on radiation doses were necessary.

Meanwhile, David J. Brenner, professor of radiation biophysics at Columbia University Medical Center, said that the higher thyroid cancer rate at Fukushima "is real" and not due to screening practices, while acknowledging that data on doses was necessary.

Thyroid cancer can be caused by radioactive iodine released in a nuclear accident. The illness may rarely be fatal, but even if it's detected early, the patients will have to stay on medication throughout their lives.

Conclusions on the connection between Fukushima radiation and cancer will help determine compensation and other policies.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала