Japan’s plan for 20 year study of 360,000 children’s radiation effects

In Japan, a Long-Term Study On Radiation Leaks’ Effects, NYT, By HIROKO TABUCHI, October 10, 2011 TOKYO — In an effort to track the long-term health effects of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan has begun a survey of local children for thyroid abnormalities, a problem associated with exposure to radiation.

The study comes in response to concerns over the health consequencesof the serious radiation leaks caused by multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in March. Japanese officials hope to study about 360,000 children who were under 18 at the time of the accident and track their health through their lifetimes, according to Fukushima Prefecture officials.

Children and pregnant women are particularly sensitive to radioactive iodine, which can harm the thyroid, studies after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 have shown. According to research presented at a 2006 global conference, at least 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer among children have been linked to Chernobyl’s fallout.

On Sunday, the first day of the Fukushima study, more than 100 children were tested. Specific test results will not be made public, according to Fukushima Prefecture. But the children, who will be tested every two years until they turn 20 and every five years after that, will receive further care if doctors discover abnormalities….. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/world/asia/japan-studies-radiation-effects-on-children.html

October 11, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | health, Japan

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The thyroid gland is not the only worry for women:

“Human breast tissue and breast milk contain higher concentrations of iodine than the thyroid gland itself, which contains just 30% of the body’s iodine stores.18,36,370 Breast tissue is rich in the same iodine-transporting proteins used by the thyroid gland to take up iodine from the blood.18,38 The evolutionary reasons for this are clear: iodine is essential to the developing newborn brain, so the mother’s body must have a direct means of supplying iodine to the nursing infant.18,39”

“Japanese women consume a diet high in iodine-rich seaweed, which provides them with an iodine intake 25 times higher than the average American woman’s.54 Japanese women also have breast cancer rates roughly one-third of those found in American women, a difference that disappears in Japanese women who immigrate to the US, where they consume considerably less seaweed.18,52,55”

See: “The Silent Epidemic of Iodine Deficiency” by Nancy Piccone

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2011/oct2011_The-Silent-Epidemic-of-Iodine-Deficiency_01.htm

Comment by Brian Fraser | October 11, 2011 | Reply