A recent study on the Fukushima nuclear meltdown and its effects on the health of children has found that children living near Fukushima have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer at a rate 20 to 50 times that of children elsewhere.
In tests overseen by Fukushima Medical University, 370,000 children were monitored in the Fukushima prefecture (state) since the March 2011 incident, and 137 have been confirmed or suspected of having thyroid cancer. The number of children diagnosed is 25 more than last year in the region. Across the world, thyroid cancer occurs in only about one or two of every million children per year.
"This is more than expected and emerging faster than expected. This is 20 times to 50 times what would be normally expected," lead author Toshihide Tsuda told The Associated Press.
The study, titled "Thyroid Cancer Detection by Ultrasound Among Residents Ages 18 Years and Younger in Fukushima, Japan: 2011-2014" is to be published in the November issue of Epidemiology, produced by the Herndon, Virginia-based International Society for Environmental Epidemiology.
Since the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe, thyroid cancer among children has been definitively linked to radiation. An early diagnosis and treatment check the disease, which is rarely fatal, if treated. Patients are on medications for the rest of their lives though.
Opinions on Tsuda's conclusions are divided.
"My daughter has the right to live free of radiation. We can never be sure about blaming radiation. But I personally feel radiation is behind sicknesses," said Noriko Matsumoto, 53, who used to work as a nurse in Koriyama, Fukushima, outside the no-go zone, and relocated to Tokyo with her then-11-year-old daughter after the disaster, reports the Herald Courier.
"Dr. Tsuda's study had limitations including assessment of individual radiation dose levels to the thyroid and the ability to fully assess the impact of screening on the excess cases detected. Nonetheless, this study is critical to initiate additional investigations of possible health effects, for governmental planning, and increasing public awareness," said Andrew F. Olshan, professor at the Department of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina, in Chapel Hill, while accepting that research on the aftereffects of a catastrophe are complex and difficult, according to My Way.
