Fukushima government’s efforts to stop study of baby teeth for radiation checks.

Fukushima gov’t tried to kill proposal to store baby teeth for future
radiation checks
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20121219p2a00m0na016000c.html
FUKUSHIMA — The Fukushima Prefectural Government has tried to kill a
proposal by a local assemblyperson to store local children’s milk
teeth to examine their internal radiation exposure stemming from the
Fukushima nuclear disaster, it has been learned.

In September 2011, Fukushima Prefectural Assembly member Junko
Yaginuma asked the prefectural government if it should urge local
residents to store baby teeth that came out after the March 2011
reactor meltdowns for future analysis of children’s strontium-90
exposure. Strontium-90, released in the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant
disaster, has biochemical features similar to calcium and can easily
accumulate in bones and teeth.

After receiving Yaginuma’s query, the prefecture sent an email to
members of a committee overseeing a prefectural health survey and
asked them to provide plausible reasons to reject the proposal. The
prefectural government called the proposal a plant by anti-nuclear
groups.

The survey committee has been mired in a string of other problems,
including holding advance “secret meetings” to harmonize expert
opinions over how to do health checks of local residents in the wake
of the meltdowns. The latest revelation is yet more evidence that the
Fukushima Prefectural Government tried to block opinions it considered
unfavorable. According to sources with knowledge of the issue, an
official at the prefecture’s health and welfare division — which
serves as the health check committee’s secretariat — sent an email to
committee members. In the email, the official said, “Are there any
findings or information that suggest that there is not much point in
storing baby teeth?” adding, “It is not the assemblyperson who asked
that question, but it appears to be an argument made by anti-nuclear
people. So, we don’t wish to take up the question.”

It is not clear whether the expert committee accepted the prefecture’s
request. On Oct. 4 last year, however, Yaginuma raised the issue at a
plenary session of the prefectural assembly. The then head of the
prefecture’s health and welfare division responded, “I understand that
there are various opinions even among experts over the validity (of
storing baby teeth). We would like to explore it while taking into
account the circumstances surrounding the scattering of radioactive
materials and experts’ research and arguments.”

The same official has since told the Mainichi Shimbun, “I don’t even
remember how I answered (Yaginuma’s) question. I may have told (an
official in charge) to ask experts for opinions, but I haven’t heard
who and what kind of email they sent.” The official in charge said, “I
don’t remember, and I can’t confirm anything about the issue.”

Meanwhile Yaginuma stated, “I thought it was a negative answer to my
question, but they were doing things like this behind the scenes,”
referring to the email. “That’s an insult to the people of the
prefecture,” and, “the prefecture, which sustained damage from the
nuclear accident, must not do that,” she continued.

A dental clinic in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, has collected about 200
baby teeth so far and sent them to a research institute in the United
States for analysis. Takemasa Fujino, head of the clinic, said, “I
can’t believe that the Fukushima Prefectural Government is reluctant
even to call for (storing baby teeth). It has abandoned its
responsibility to protect children.”

Katsuma Yagasaki, professor emeritus at University of the Ryukyus,
said that research conducted in the U.S. after the 1950s confirmed a
correlation between childhood cancer and their internal exposure to
strontium-90. He said Fukushima children’s baby teeth should be stored
so that the danger to their health can be examined in the future.

On Dec. 19, Hiroyuki Kanno, head of the prefecture’s health and welfare division, apologized for “having caused a misunderstanding with the people of the prefecture.”